Fiction: A Very Short Story by Cecilia Brainard

I’m shar­ing a flash fic­tion or short short of mine today. This has 125 words. “A Very Short Sto­ry” is part of my sec­ond short sto­ry col­lec­tion, Aca­pul­co at Sun­set and Oth­er Sto­ries.  

 

 A VERY SHORT STORY

 by Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard

Your world — or your mind — does not allow for an after­noon walk to the muse­um, nor a stop at the chapel for silent prayer, a glass of halo-halo under the ipil-ipil, laugh­ter and sto­ries, for old time’s sake.

It allows for a few hours at the Hilton. Face like stone you give a false name to the man at the reg­istry, pay in cash, and ascend to the sun-streamed room, for an after­noon of sad, hot-blood­ed love­mak­ing.

Face like stone, you tell your wife whom you have long-ago stopped lov­ing, that you had a late busi­ness meet­ing with some Japan­ese clients. (It’s the same sto­ry you had left at your office ear­li­er that day.)

And you won­der why you go about in mut­ed sor­row and anger.

~end~

Tags: fic­tion, flash fic­tion, short short, micro fic­tion, lit­er­a­ture, Philip­pines, Fil­ipino, Cecil­ia Brainard