FLASH FICTION TUESDAY: Who Am I Now?

 

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Now on Tuesdays…at least for the foreseeable future…welcome to Flash Fiction Tuesday. In case you don’t know what flash fiction is, it is an extremely short story (sometimes created in 100 words or less) with a beginning, middle, and an ending.

But in my case, I write flash fiction with an open ending. I allow my readers to draw their own conclusion as to what happens. This week we step into the world of someone who seems to have lost her way in an instant..

 

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The mug was cool to her touch when Maxi finally reached for her tea. There she was again, lost in a daze and staring at the kitchen table like she had when she heard the words shattering her world.

“I’m leaving you, Maxi.”

Jake killed her with those four little words last night. She waited for the deafening silence to settle around the room after he dropped that bomb on her heart. Maxi knew she should say something…tried desperately to will herself to say anything…but all she could do is stare back at him in stunned shock. She almost wanted to laugh at the thought she must look like a fish out of water, trying to gulp back the air rushing out her lungs just seconds before.

“Did you hear what I said, Maxi? I’m leaving you.” 

Yes, she’d heard him, but Maxi was terrified if she opened her mouth a primal scream would be released. Afraid there would be no stopping it once she let it go. Instead, she sat frozen in time as she watched Jake pack their future in a couple of suitcases and walk out the door. 

Only then did she give in to the scalding tears burning their way down her icy cheeks.

Only then did the air rush back into her lungs so quickly Maxi had to grab the edge of the table as waves of vertigo threatened to throw her onto the cold, tile floor.

Question after question raced through her mind, darting around with no purpose other than to make her feel like she was going crazy.

“Was this some kind of nightmare she couldn’t wake up from?”

“How was she going to tell her parents her child would come into this world without a father?”

“If I’m no longer a wife…lover…soon to be mother…then who am I now?”

The sound of the doorbell startled Maxi out of her reverie and back to the world of the living. She remembered now. Her sister was stopping by to drop off baby clothes she no longer needed now her own little one just learned to walk.

Maxi took a deep, steadying breath and slowly stood up from the table. She didn’t know where her new life would take her now, but one thing she did know for certain.

LOVE was waiting for her on the other side of the door…

 

Okay, it’s your turn! Put your creative cap on and add to the poem if it calls to you. Continue my story or start one of your own and leave a comment below…

 

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donna

 

 

International best selling, award-winning author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host providing the latest book reviews on all genres of children’s books, and the host of WRITERLY WISDOM, a resource series for writers. Donna is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and Children’s Book Insider. She is a lover of dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection. Donna’s latest book, LUNADAR: Homeward Bound (a YA fantasy), is now available in eBook and print form from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, and other online retailers.

 

 

Donna L

Hybrid award winning author; aspiring sketch artist; and 4th Degree Senior Certified Taekwondo Instructor. Host of BOOK NOOK REVIEWS. Member of SCBWI. Mom to fabulous son and adventurer delving into the tricky world of indie-publishing.

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