FICTION IN A FLASH

THE WISHING STONE    One evening, Ada was returning from the neighbouring village when she stumbled upon a stone by the riverbank, smooth and glowing faintly under the moonlight. She picked it up, and a whisper filled her ears,   “One wish, anything you desire.”   She laughed at the absurdity, but hunger gnawed at her belly. Her parents and siblings waited back at the hut for her return. Earlier in the day, Ada’s mother sent her to her Aunt who resides in the neighbouring village for foodstuffs that can sustain them for two days but met her absence. Her Aunt’s neighbours told her that she travelled with her family.   Ada did not know what to do. Going back home empty handed was out of the question as her family relied on her to come home with some foodstuffs. Upon seeing the stone and listening to it whisper granting of wishes lifted her spirits. She chose not to say anything back to it until she arrived her hut.   As Ada approached her hut, her parents an...

  STILL, SHE WROTE      Everyone told Adanna to be realistic.   "Writing”, her uncle scoffed. “That's not a career, it's a phase”. Her mother tried to say it gently - folding laundry and disappointment at once. “You’re too smart to waste your life chasing stories”.   At first Adanna nodded, smiled, even tried to believe them. She enrolled in accounting. She passed the courses. She wore the suit. She hated every second. But late at night, when the house was quiet, the power was steady, and the rest of the world had forgotten her, she wrote. On napkins, on the backs of receipts, in margins of textbooks. Little pieces of herself, stored where no one could criticize them.   Her first short story was rejected 17 times. She printed every rejected email and taped them above her desk, like battle scars. “You're not good enough”, one editor scribbled in the margins of a returned manuscript. That one, she framed.    By year three of her corporate job, ...

THE MISSED CALL    Lizzy was shocked when she heard Mary mumbling some words into thin air. She thought Mary was experiencing mental imbalance until she noticed drops of tears fall from her eyes as she lay on her side of the bed they shared. Mary has been restless since yesternight. She kept turning and turning on her bed without saying a word except for low moans. She has refused to say anything to Lizzy who has questioned her severally on different occasions.   It all started when Mary returned from the hospital three days ago holding a brown envelope. She tossed the envelope on the table and went into the bathroom. The way she threw the envelope made it drop on Lizzy’s feet. Lizzy bent and picked it up.   “What?”, Lizzy exclaimed as she read the contents of the laboratory test result in her hands. Hearing Lizzy's voice, Mary came out of the bathroom with her wet face and a towel hanging from her shoulder. She was confused on seeing Lizzy holding the laboratory tes...