“Gun for sale. Used only once,” my wife said, reading another of her six-word stories. We were in the basement of the house her father left her. A tornado on the other side. Candles flickered. Mannequin limbs reached out from boards and pipes. Material for the art her father never got to make.
“How can you?” I said.
“It helps me get my mind off things,” she said.
“I like it,” I told her. Grabbed a hand with curled fingers and scratched my back. Something large banged against the house and a mannequin toppled. I asked her to read another.
Robert Scotellaro has been published widely in books, journals, and anthologies including: W.W. Norton’s Flash Fiction International Anthology, NANO Fiction,Gargoyle, and many others. He is the author of seven literary chapbooks and two full-length collections: Measuring the Distance (flash fiction, 2012) and What We Know So Far (micro fiction, 2015). The latter was the winner of The Blue Light Book Award. A forthcoming collection of his 100-word stories is due out by Big Table Publications in 2016. He was the recipient of Zone 3’s Rainmaker Award in Poetry. Robert currently lives in San Francisco. Visit him at rsflashfiction.com.
Photo credit: Jeremy Brooks via Foter.com / CC BY-NC
A Quiet Courage 