Sudden Fiction

Last night at the library it was very slow, agonizingly slow. So I picked up a pad of paper from a Staybridge Suites that someone had left in a book and decided to compose some sudden fiction. The goal was to write a story in the 5-1/2 inches by 4-1/4 inches space (the uppermost inch of which was covered in a logo). I finished two stories. I present them to you unedited, as they were written down last night. I would have liked to have expanded on the second, but I was already writing tiny letters and I ran out of paper.


"I'm sorry, man, I didn't mean to do it. Just put the gun down!"

"Do you know how long it's been since I ate cheese? Do you?"

"I know."

"It's been eight years since I've been off the wheel. Eight god damn years! And then you serve me this." He gestured to the cheese danish half out of the bag on the table in front of him.

"I'm sorry boss. I told them I wanted a cherry turnover. They must have given me the wrong thing." He was sweating now. Marconi had shot men for less.

"You didn't think to check it? Did your mother raise a simpleton?"

"N-no. I just knew you were hungry so I rushed. It won't happen again!"

"You got that right."

A short while later there was a cherry turnover and the smell of bleach in the air.

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Raoul had the fingers of both hands crossed as he approached the community's chore basket. He stepped forward, said a quick prayer to Vasinji, and reached into the ancient basket for one of the rune stones inscribed with a chore.

Juan Paul, the village elder, nodded and smiled. The boy returned to his family before flipping over the smooth stone to see what chore he had taken. Piss Taker.

"Aw, bones," he cursed.

* * *

Being a piss taker wasn't all bad, he thought as he crouched low at the edge of the T-Rex's nest. Even those who failed were honored at the great feast for their service to the tribe, unless of course they ran.

The ground shook and he pulled himself from his musings. Raoul checked the skins for the twentieth time. Still there. The ground trembled more violently as the great lizard neared. He was down wind of the beast, so he smelled it through the underbrush before it crashed through into the clearing. It dropped the bloodied and torn carcass of some animal, sniffed about and began to feed.

After the gory feast it lumbered to where Raoul crouched, the boy thought he would be dessert, and let loose a river's worth of sour smelling urine. The gods had smiled on him after all.

After a time the beast left and Raoul collected what yellowed liquid had not soaked into the ground. The people of the village hoisted him in celebration. Until they got a good wiff of him and he was sent to the hot springs.

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I wanted to do another, but that was all I had time for.