Laying

My latest in the Flash! Fiction annual flash fiction competition. This time it was 210 words max and I didn’t respond to the photo prompt, but two “themes” explained below. 

Character: Talking rooster
Theme: pranks

I was entangled in the bedspread, with one sock missing and the sun shining bright through the window. White curtains were a bad idea. Mental note: get darker curtains. With a roll, I tried to evade the sun and pretended to sleep. But my eyelids quivered resistance.

My body ached from being in the bed, unmoving, for the last sixteen hours. But my bed was a refuge; my cushiony oasis away from human beings and their crushing baggage.

Dad liked to say I was depressed, but that word felt scratchy and painful, like trying to slide sandpaper down your esophagus. I mean, yeah, there was that time I stayed under the cold bath water a little too long, but I was fine. It scared dad, but I was fine.

And then there was Charlie. Charlie stayed in the corner, his colorful feathers and beak faced the wall. I liked it that way. It made my brain matter wiggle when he’d speak. Short syllables, like, “Move it.”

Damn thing seemed to always be mocking me. Colorful while my insides were like a black and white movie.

Well, the prank was on him. I stood up, took my one sock and stuffed into his beak. He won’t chirp now.

That’ll show him.