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Yoji, by Mark Tulin

16/7/2018

 
While driving down a backroad in Cherry Hill, I passed by a pet store. I had just been through a painful divorce, feeling quite low, and thought that I needed something to pick up my spirits.

“I’ll just look,” I told myself. Knowing full well whenever I say that I end up buying something.

I made a screeching U-turn and headed into the parking lot of the pet store. I browsed the cat section for a few minutes. They all looked so cute, especially a sleek Russian Blue with silky gray fur. He looked at me with his green eyes, making an instant connection.

“Would you like to spend time with him alone to see if you’re compatible?” an employee by the name of Sal asked.

“Yes, I would.”

He took me to a little guest room with cat toys, an enclosed area where I could get to know the cat better.

“He likes guys with beards,” Sal said, who had a beard himself.

I picked up the cat, and he rubbed his snout against the front of my beard while making a purring sound.

“Yoji,” I said without thinking. I had been watching an episode of Miami Ink, and one of the characters was named Yoji.

Sal nodded his head in approval, knowing that the cat had found a suitable home.

In a matter of minutes, I was in my car with Yoji, who was purring in the animal carrier on the passenger seat. For the time being, at least, I had forgotten all about the divorce.

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    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.


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    Please feel free to comment (nicely!) on any stories – writers appreciate it.
    Just at the moment, though, we're moderating some of them so there might be a slight delat before they appear
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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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