Friday Flash Fiction
  • Home
    • About Friday Flash Fiction
  • 100-Word Stories
  • Longer Stories
  • Poetry
  • Authors
    • A-C
    • D-F
    • G-I
    • J-L
    • M-O
    • P-R
    • S-V
    • W-Z
  • Submissions
    • Technical Help
    • Writing Good Flash Fiction
    • Terms & Conditions
    • GDPR Compliance

The List, by Bruce Levine

3/7/2020

 
Phillip sat at his desk. He’d just completed an inventory of the day, what he’d accomplished and what remained to be done. It hadn’t been a long list, but each item had taken a significant amount of time. He was glad the done portion was complete and that there weren’t too many items remaining to do. Now he leaned back in his chair and surveyed the room. He liked this room. He felt comfortable in it.

His eyes were tired both from getting up early and the concentrated effort. He considered a lie-down, not so much because of his need for sleep, or even rest, but to ease his eyes.

On second thought, he realized, if he stopped now he probably would never go back to the list, he knew himself well enough to know that he’d simply write the remaining items on tomorrow’s page and he’d find ways to procrastinate through the remainder of the day.

He’d read, watch television (he was a huge watcher as well as reader of mysteries) or simply go back and forth to his desk, checking his email or other follow-ups that he regularly checked, but the To Do list would remain untouched.

Phillip was not a procrastinator, however, in what would normally be considered a negative sense. He always got a lot done, but it was the simple things that always seemed to be put on the back burner in favor of doing something new.

In the end, Phillip decided that if he didn’t finish the list, at least once, he’d never complete it. Only four things, he thought, but each of them involved multiple steps and a variety of other things that he simply didn’t feel like doing so, as much as his mind told him to do them Phillip simply lacked the willpower to force his body to obey his commands and he allowed himself to slip into the miasma of prevarication.

Phillip sat at his desk. He completed another inventory of the list, put it aside and opened his computer to check his email.
​
Don Tassone link
3/7/2020 12:23:29 pm

To some extent, I think, we are all like Phillip: ruled by lists yet always drawn away. Good story.

Bruce Levine link
3/7/2020 01:15:20 pm

Thank you!

Mary Wallace
3/7/2020 02:53:43 pm

Call me Phillip. I write lists and then add anything I do in the day to the list. It looks better when something is crossed off.😂

phyllis souza
3/7/2020 05:52:35 pm

Bruce, I enjoyed the story "The List." For me, writing a list, was a obligation I had to fulfill. Drive me crazy if I didn't. I no longer write one.

Sue Clayton
4/7/2020 05:10:39 am

You could've been writing about me, Phillip. Nice empathetic piece for many of us.


Comments are closed.

    Longer
    Stories

    Longer Friday Flash Fiction Stories

    Friday Flash Fiction is primarily a site for stories of 100 words or fewer, and our authors are expected to take on that challenge if they possibly can. Most stories of under 150 words can be trimmed and we do not accept submissions of 101-150 words.


    However, in response to demand, the FFF team constructed this forum for significantly longer stories of 151-500 words. Please send submissions for these using the Submissions Page.

    Stories to the 500 word thread will be posted as soon as we can mange.

    Picture

    One little further note. Posting and publishing 500-word stories takes a little time if they need to be formatted, too.
    ​Please note that we tend to post longer flash fiction exactly as we find it – wrong spacing, everything.

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014

Picture
Website by Platform 36