Friday Flash Fiction - week 40

A Life of Solitude in the Garden Shed

“Bernie!”

Bernard. He winced and put the light hammer down onto the pine workbench in the shed.

“Bernie!” she yelled again, across the garden. “Five minutes until tea!”

Allowing Mozart’s soft notes to sooth his mood, he waited for the Piano Concerto No. 21 to finish and then turned off the CD player which had been a gift from his eldest son for his sixtieth birthday. At the time he hadn’t imagined using it, but finding all his old opera and classical favourites on CD had become a weekend hobby over the last couple of years.

He wiped his feet and slid his ‘garden shoes’ into the rack just inside the backdoor. There was some loud, banging pop music blaring from the kitchen radio and Bernard felt the hairs of his neck rise on end. His father’s words sprang to mind, ‘she’s too young for you, my boy, mark my words!’

Jennifer put a plate of steaming vegetables, boiled potatoes and lightly grilled salmon in front of him. At least she can cook well, he thought. 

“Delicious, Jennifer. Thank you.”

“Ta!”

Bernard closed his eyes and counted to three.  

“Do you know who I saw in town today?” she asked. 

“No, I don’t.” 

“Susan and she said…”

Bernard thought of his latest piece of wood that he would be able to resume working on after he had finished his dinner. It would be light until nine o’clock and after that he could listen to more Mozart until bed-time at ten. 

“Bernie!” 

Bernard. 

“Are you listening to me?”

“Yes, of course, dear.”   

Laura Besley

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Flash Fiction diary

This piece was written a while ago as an experiment with inner voice. 

Flash Fortnightly #10 is a piece about love, letters, love letters, and regret. Click here for Letters from the Past. 

imprint 12 (the annual anthology of Women in Publishing Society) was launched on Friday 15th March and as mentioned before, I was asked to read my piece of flash fiction, Fractious Heat. I was incredibly nervous, but as I had practised a few times with my lovely husband, I think it went well. I got a good reaction from the crowd, which was a real boost! 
As always, it's an absolute thrill to see my work in print. As well as the piece of flash fiction, I also submitted a piece of non-fiction, Aspects of Home.  





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Flash Fiction is short enough to read whilst you're waiting for the kettle to boil. It's fairly quick to write too, but with it being so short, every word has to count. 

On 4th May 2012 I decided to embark on a project: to write a piece of Flash Fiction every day. I'm hoping this will keep the creative juices flowing and ultimately help me hone my craft. Every Friday I'll be posting 'the best of the week' onto my blog for you to read. If you have anything to say (good or 'constructive'!), I'm open to comments.  

Thanks, as always, for reading.