“When will it start?” Marcus whined as a mosquito bit him, leaving an itchy red welt behind. It seemed like they’d been waiting forever already. “Not long,” Mom said. He lay back on the quilt with a huff and watched the purple sky. The more he stared, the darker it got until it was nearly blue black with a winky-blinky star and a big round moon. Then he saw it. A tiny flash of light, then another, and another. He…
Jake spread the map out on the hood of his car. The sun glinted off the windshield, adding to the sweat already accumulating uncomfortably on his back. He traced the route they’d been traveling, trying to determine where he’d gone wrong — aside from agreeing with Mia to lock their phones in the glove box so they could have an ‘old-fashioned’ road trip. Somewhere between license plate bingo and attempting to tune the radio to a station that played songs…
I’m detouring from my normal flash fiction this week, mostly because I spent all week catching up on beta reading, critiques, and other important writing “stuff”. Call me crazy, but if my to-do pile gets too high, I panic until I cut it down or complete it and get it off my desk. Thus, it’s Friday afternoon, and while my desk is clear, I have 2 loads of laundry to fold, another to dry, and just realized I failed to…
The sky exploded with a burst of white that glittered as the firework lit up the night. Mandie swatted at a mosquito feasting on her leg and scratched the welt the bite left behind. Uncle Lou passed her the bug spray, and she covered herself in it — again. Another shower of color, this one in blue, looked like a bright chrysanthemum. A bottle rocket screeched to life, its burning end red before it popped. The boys whooped with joy…