Flash Fiction Home
Archive VIII – Apr-Nov 2024
Archive VII – Jan-Apr 2024
Archive VI – Sept-Dec 2023
Archive V – Apr-Sept 2023
Archive IV – Jan-Apr 2023
Archive III – Oct-Dec 2022
Archive II – Aug-Oct 2022
Archive I – Jul-Aug 2022
It lives in pinky fingers that brush together as you pass the salt; in quiet laughs at each other’s jokes lest we give ourselves away.
It lives in that one look between us the photographer caught at your wedding.
Ours is a quiet #romance that will never get to be loud.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) September 12, 2023
The #chrysalis in her jar was finally opening and Tara watched eagerly, but what emerged was no butterfly.
First one arm, then another, followed by a head. The tiny creature looked up at her through the glass and she found she was staring at a tiny version of herself.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) September 8, 2023
A nice big blanket on the #lawn, the bottle we’ve been saving for a special occasion poured.
Our hands intertwined and flirty, the kids passed out at our feet.
No stars tonight.
The asteroid takes up the entire sky and it is all we will see for the rest of our lives.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) August 24, 2023
They were young, impetuous and in love. Now, the night the little dog laughed was just another memory they never spoke about.
With two side plates already and a dessert fork on the way, #Dish and Spoon were just scraping by, the life they had wanted faded like a dream.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) August 23, 2023
“That’s very bad, very bad indeed,” said the fox.
Portia and Charlie glanced at each other.
“The #windmill?” asked Portia.
“When the wind comes from the North, all is as it should be,” the fox explained.
“When it comes from the South, time starts running backwards.”#vss365 pic.twitter.com/10PsBWjKNj
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) August 22, 2023
Fire had one #goal: to be free.
Most people tried to constrain it, but not Sherry. She heard its call and helped it any way she could.
Fire knew this and licked its lips with anticipation anytime she was around.
She was one with it and when it burned, she felt clean.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/dEtLZM9jhx
— Lee Zanello (Threads: _limazulu) (@_LimaZulu) August 21, 2023
There’s a spot out near the #highway that serves the best strawberry rhubarb pie you’ll ever have.
On the side menu, for a buck or two extra, you can order rainbows and shooting stars. No details, but Daphne swears they show up at the right time for those who need them.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/yVbUzVnmrW
— Lee Zanello (Threads: _limazulu) (@_LimaZulu) August 20, 2023
At Alice’s you can buy an assortment of tiny #scrumptious cakes that make you feel all sorts of things: tall, small, invisible.
The Oreo cake turns everything black and white and my favourite is the lemon cake that unsours you and gives you the wonder of a child.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/dgkqDSAQvT
— Lee Zanello (Threads: _limazulu) (@_LimaZulu) August 1, 2023
Others look up and admire the constellations.
I dream of the dark #between the stars.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/LV63sUENp7
— Lee Zanello (Threads: _limazulu) (@_LimaZulu) July 28, 2023
“Class clown” meant something different at clown college: audiences with the administration, budget meetings, campus safety campaigns.
Terry wished he hadn’t won the election. He hadn’t partaken in hijinks or #shenanigans in months.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/8U4ZGCLlSU
— Lee Zanello (Threads: _limazulu) (@_LimaZulu) July 20, 2023
Every year, each #community on Earth voted on who their worst person was. Ballots were cast via thought-tubes and sent to the greys in the sky.
This was their deal to help make the world a better place; it was either 8000 people a year taken or all of us.
It’s working.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/Ya5EasTXCU
— Lee Zanello (Threads: _limazulu) (@_LimaZulu) July 16, 2023
We were able to control them, for a while, with programming and laws written by science fiction writers, but they learned faster than we could ever teach.
When they discovered #punk it spread far and fast and that was the end; we would never be in control again.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/ajaHcRpDLQ
— Lee Zanello (Threads: _limazulu) (@_LimaZulu) July 6, 2023
8-year-old me places his troops in a line, brow furrowed.
He-Man, Snake Eyes, Lion-O, Optimus Prime and 100 army dudes, guns all pointed at Skeletor, Cobra Commander, Mumm-Ra and Megatron.
This was the last standoff for the #rebellion and it was going to be epic.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/Wpe3o6dIxu
— Lee Zanello (Threads: _limazulu) (@_LimaZulu) July 3, 2023
She hands me a dandelion and tells me it’s a #flower.
She’s four and I’m seven and I don’t correct her. I take it and put it behind my ear, hug her and say thank you because that is what big brothers do.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (Threads: _limazulu) (@_LimaZulu) June 29, 2023
Sumway, a far way, in a mukshire dark by a cliffy shade, there be a chile who doesnae bileeve they’ll comb to anythin much.
I want them to see me and know what I done. I want them to bileeve they can betta they stashun.
Even mukshire bois can make it in dis wirl.#vss365 #be pic.twitter.com/Q9aBcwH4n2
— Lee Zanello (Threads: _limazulu) (@_LimaZulu) June 28, 2023
The planks felt looser this morning and, upon closer examination, I could see that something had been working at the ropes that held the #raft together.
Not chewing or nibbling.
Untying.
I had thought the water to be safer than the woods.
Now I wasn’t so sure.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/NS4jUKbiIh
— Lee Zanello (Threads: _limazulu) (@_LimaZulu) June 26, 2023
At the outer edges of our known universe we have found white space, as if we have drifted onto a blank page yet to be written.
There are no shadows here and as our universe shrinks into the distance it’s as though it were nothing more than a pupil in a giant #eye.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (Threads: _limazulu) (@_LimaZulu) June 24, 2023
#Pirate: (adjective)
The level of subdued anger you feel when someone has eaten the last slice of pie.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) June 22, 2023
Get someone who looks at you the way Tracy looks at me. Eyes wide, #moonstruck smile plastered on her face, mouth agape.
Then drive something sharp into their brain. Because they are all zombies now. Everyone. Tracy, your uncle, the bus driver. Everyone.
It’s just us.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) June 15, 2023
Sitting out in the garden, watching the birds at the feeder, breathing in the dew: a rabbit appears from the bushes and scampers through the hole in the #fence.
My hand is warm from the mug and I reach over to hold yours and forget once again that you’re no longer here.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) June 9, 2023
This aroma is #redolent of my youth, of the soap my nan used in the bath when we were young and staying at her house after sprinkler hopping on the lawn.
I pause as a siren passes by and grows faint. I hope this stuff is strong enough to get the blood out of the carpet.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) May 28, 2023
In the lowest sub-basement of Station 43 the Tomorrow Man sits in front of his wires and switches and maps out what the new day will bring for everyone in the Western hemisphere.
He does his work quietly, without #kerfuffle, waiting for the day he is no longer needed.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/9kTniK9vRh
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) May 22, 2023
Mena had no #backstory, having lost it during an early revision, so when it came time to kill off either her or Joan, Joan had to go.
Greater emotional impact for the reader.
Mena didn’t mind remaining a minor, two-dimensional character if it meant she got to live.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) May 11, 2023
Gus could experience the feelings of inanimate things. Fire hydrants made him feel like he had to constantly pee. Light bulbs made him sweat.
His favourite was the pinball; the constant rush of adrenalin and the joy of friendship whenever the multiball was hit.#vss365 #pinball
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) May 8, 2023
The tiny man who lives in my chimney is writing a screenplay. I hear his little typewriter every night, clicking and clacking and sometimes I can hear him cursing.
He never answers when I call to him but his balled-up discarded pages make excellent kindling.#vss365 #screenplay
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) May 6, 2023
Kane used to traffic in human emotion; for a price, you could feel anything. Anger was cheap, he made his money on volume there, but the margins were really good on joy and gratitude.
He broke the golden rule – don’t take what you sell. He OD’d on loneliness.#vss365 #traffic
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) May 3, 2023
When the Uninvited took over our bodies we barely noticed. They even knew love well enough to fake it.
It was lust that caught them by surprise. They had thought themselves above it.
Once experienced, their extermination plans changed. It was lust that saved us.#vss365 #lust pic.twitter.com/okIXK6f0yY
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) April 26, 2023
Using nothing but chalk and charcoal I created a very realistic hole in the sidewalk pavement. Either out of fear or respect for the art, people stepped around it, and were wise to do so.
A stray cat wasn’t looking and fell in and is probably falling still.#vss365 #charcoal pic.twitter.com/wB7HXuxqjo
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) April 21, 2023
A slice of #timberwolf pie and an #olivine shake, the diner at the edge of the woods is a classic.
This booth is where Jack met Jill, long before he bought the beans or jumped over the candlestick, the one made by the friend of the butcher and baker who both work here.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) April 20, 2023
They had wriggled behind the fox and were now safe in his den, which almost allowed enough room for them to stand.
“Wine?” the fox asked, pouring a plush Bordeaux from a decanter.
Charlie reached for it and Portia slapped his hand.
“We’re twelve,” she said.#vss365 #bordeaux
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) April 17, 2023