If you’re not familiar with what Flash! Friday is, here’s the explainer. But in short, it’s a fun weekly contest of flash fiction writers, where each week a new picture prompt, “element” prompt (based on fire and ice), and a limited word count is given, and writers have 24 hours to submit their story. By Monday, the judges pick a winner.
The Nov. 6 prompt was this picture:
The additional prompt was to either include a non-human character (fire element) or include a phrase in another language, non-English (ice element). The word count was between 150-160 words.
I was fortunate enough to recieve a lovely shoutout from one of the judges, Sinéad O’Hart, who said:
Brett Milam‘s “Pink Dreams” was so arresting that I read it over and over; it stopped me in my tracks with its unique beauty.
You can read the full results here.
My entry had a word count of 160 words, and used the ice element. Here is my entry:
When he was younger, Barakat noticed her inside of him.
She was gentle at first. He’d give her his leftover milk from cereal, and the blues he felt would abate, like sunrays at evening. But as he got older, she required more, so he spent his days at Maharloo Lake pretending to catch fish for her since the lake had no fish.
Better known as Pink Lake, he wished that were inside of him — that he could gobble up the pink to drown her blues. She was catching on. As his mother would say, “نمک خوردن و نمکدون شکستن” and she was beginning to bite with ferocity.
As she prepared to overtake him, Barakat watched as the pink waters lapped his toes, like a gentle kiss from a sunset. Then he plunged a butcher knife into his stomach and her blues.
Red blood seeped into pink, swirling, and continuing to lap around him. His eyes closed, and her blues receded.
Milam's Musings 