Biggest Backyard
I’m listening for her chain-jingle on the wrong side of our fence. Moving through the dry bamboo reeds we use as swords, the trees running branch tips through my hair. I consider the ticks, droplets bobbing on the leaves, bouncing in the summer dank . I call for her but I only hear the birds, and cricket squeak, and my brother shouting her name through cupped hands. Offering treats. “Bone!” He sounds serious.
Someone’d left the gate open—a crack—and she’s gone. Like that.
(it was my brother)
The woods behind my house feel like the biggest backyard—like there’s maybe a fence to keep her in, but it’s somewhere on the other side of the world.
__________
This has been another installment of Madison Woods’ Friday Fictioneers. Check it out.
For more practicallyserious flash fiction, check this story out.
Or, feel free to peruse the practicallyserious fiction library!
nicely done and that is a happy dog out there exploring.
here is mine http://yaralwrites.com/
thanks! a happy dog, but a sad brother!
Awwww, man. That one hits right at home — after I got over the ticks bouncing. Poor kids.
thanks for taking a look!
I liked the stream of consciousness feel to that (maybe that’s not the right term, but whatever style you used, it worked well). It felt like summertime and to a kid and especially a kid with a great imagination, the backyard feels like a huge world.
thanks! yeah, i guess that’s as good a term to use as any. I’m finding these low-word-count challenges easier to deal with if I keep it “loose.” and more fun, too!
Love the bouncing ticks. The image I mean. Don’t like ticks otherwise. I like the way that it was written, too. Well done. Mine’s here: http://marilynkaydennis.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/madison-woods-friday-fictioneers-witch
Thanks a lot. I’m not big on ticks, myself! More of a dog person.
Hopefully, the prodigal dog will return home.
Here’s mine: http://logo-ligi.com/2012/06/15/six-oclock/
I am always most interested in the story being told. I can see a bounding dog, unfettered, following a raised nose and running like a deer. He will return when he gets hungry, that is when we all come home. Nicely done.
http://thebradleychronicles.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/flash-fiction-friday-letting-go/
Thanks a lot man.
I would not want to be that brother…a spanking is overdue. However, I would be worried more about the bouncing ticks than the dog…they always return. Here’s mine:
http://www.triplemoonstar.blogspot.com
thanks for checking it out!
Hope the dog gets back safely.
she’ll come back soon enough, smelling like the bottom of some brown leafy pond. Thanks for checking it out!