Challenge accepted by Eva Bielby
Flash fiction is a concise form of prose
storytelling consisting of self-contained stories that may also be referred to
as sudden fiction, short-short stories, micro-fiction, or micro-stories. This
particular genre is highly regarded by renowned English writers for its ability
to convey profound insights and timeless human emotions within a few short
paragraphs.
Eva's challenge was to write a flash fiction story of
less than 500 words, based on this picture:
Felicity
Felicity
recalled the day it all happened, and the despair she felt. She and her two
babies were unceremoniously evicted from the house they once called home. The
house where her children aged twenty months and ten weeks should have grown up.
Of course it was all his fault – Adam, her soon-to-be, ex-husband! It was the
threatening letters from the mortgage company and her subsequent ‘chat’ about the
matter with him that she learned of the massive gambling debts he’d
accumulated. Their car, plus the large electrical items (bought on finance)
were all repossessed. He pleaded, even cried, as she told him to get out and
disappear, though afterwards she felt guilty. He was the kid’s dad, after all.
Later the
same afternoon, after spending hours making calls (in a café), desperate to
find some form of help, that help arrived. A charitable organisation arranged
some temporary accommodation for her little family. They gave an address where
she was to meet with a representative from the organisation at six pm and sign
the necessary paperwork. Felicity left the café and struggled along in the rain,
pushing the double buggy one-handed and pulling a humongous suitcase on wheels
with the other. Hard work. The case held their meagre possessions. All that she
crammed in – clothes for the three of them. Not having funds to pay someone to
transport household items to, or for that matter, a storage facility, it was
all she could manage. Her parents lived at the opposite end of the country. The
purse full of coins she had wouldn’t cover the train fare to them.
And now,
three months later, still stuck in the grotty little bed-sit with the second
hand cot (a charitable donation) squashed in next to her bed. Both babies slept
together each night, top to toe. The only means of cooking - a dilapidated
microwave. She’d needed money from somewhere, anywhere. The universal credit
from the benefits system barely covered the extortionate monthly rent.
Desperation set in over the last four weeks and she’d done things she wasn’t
proud of. Caught shop-lifting, she’d hidden stolen food items in the buggy behind
the back of her toddler. The store-manager took pity on her after she’d been
hauled into his office, uncontrollably sobbing as she related her sad story to
him. Yet, far worse than theft, unforgiveable even, she was taking a man back
to the bedsit but thankfully, had a change of heart. She had thought about
selling her body for money –next to the cot which held her two sleeping babies.
All because she cared about feeding her babies and keeping the roof (grim as it
was) over their heads. A sixteen year old girl from next door, her babysitter while
she roamed the street, turned her nose up at the offered ten pound note. She snatched
the offered note rather ungratefully. Felicity was destitute after she’d paid
the girl the ten pounds.
Eva Bielby
Eva Bielby was born in North Yorkshire in the Northeast of England. She has spent over thirty years of her working life as a company accountant. Eva has a keen interest in spiritualism/mediumship and has attended several workshops to develop her skills further. During her quieter moments, Eva enjoys a cryptic crossword, sudoku, and gardening.
