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The Undesirable Neighbour, by Miya Yamanouchi

1/3/2021

 
TRAVEL
Children play alongside him like he’s normal. They’ve been taught how to deal with his type.

Men and women walk past him as though he’s harmless. Just another neighbour whose quirks you resolve to accept over time.

But I’m not from around here and I cannot ignore him. No, I cannot look away.

And precisely because I’m new in town, he singles me out, taunting me with his wicked and vile visage.

He watches me, waits for me, and beckons me into his toxic abode.

I don’t want to go, but my body tingles, electric with curiosity, to venture deep into his alluring realm.

Tall and tormenting, his shiny crimson paint screams at me, from beyond the mute morose forest in which he dwells.

His steel name tag, in white bold Bosnian, sinisterly announces himself to I and to anyone else who nears:

‘Pazi Mine’. In English, that reads:

Beware
Landmines.



Note from the author:
Over 25 years on from the 1992-95 conflict, Bosnia remains one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world, with around 80,000 mines and UXOs remaining, and more than half a million Bosnian residents directly threatened by mine-contaminated micro-locations.

George
1/3/2021 08:07:50 pm

There is a torrid pace to this writing that announces danger and awareness and the hidden metal landmines in their long slumber lure the senses and are for their time beautifully written capturing the great innocence

Sue Clayton
2/3/2021 02:05:51 am

Like touching the hot plate to see if it's still hot (ouch) but much more lethal in its outcome. Your story made my blood run cold, Miya.

Mary Wallace
2/3/2021 06:27:16 am

Excellent piece of writing to draw attention to an ongoing issue.


Comments are closed.

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    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.

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    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.

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