I have an assigned due Thursday where I have to write three ultrashort stories of 75 words each based on some images the prof gave us. I figured I might as well do them here so they will be saved for all posterity and, of course, to help me keep track of the word count.

Two girls. They were still friends, that was the main thing. The “thing” that had happened “that night” hadn’t ruined their friendship. Not yet, anyway. Two bottles of wine, one each of them. Two tabs of ecstasy, one each. Their embrace. Their kiss. Their… lips. Under the influence of Aunt Molly, they had been two halves of the same magnificently sexual whole. But now, in the light of morning, they were just two girls. Shopping.

“What do you say?” “They are not ready. ” “No progress?” “On the contrary, they have progressed well. When last I came, they were children telling stories and forming gangs. Now they are adolescents, growing rapidly in power and wisdom, sometimes full of optimism and bravado, other times harrowed by self doubt. The gangs remain but grow larger and more stable. They are on the cusp of adulthood. My next visit will be in 200 years, not 2000. ”

No. Nuh-uh. I’m not gunna do it. So shut up, Man in my Head. If I do it again they will put us back in the Home and we don’t need the Home any more. We have a job, and a girlfriend, and people who like us and some of them even know what we did to that girl. And we don’t want to hurt people anybody any more. Ever. So SHUT. UP. BAD. MAN.

I also have to write 150-ish words about a flash fiction story I like. I would post it here but it’s 1000 words^[1] plus I don’t want to step on anyone’s copyright toes.

So I have linked to it here.

I chose this story out of the five under consideration because I was impressed with how it wove together emotion and near-future science fiction. I also like how you don’t know what exactly the protagonist means by having her data locked down so thoroughly. And then she mentions that all others see is her name. This sort of science fiction works best when you establish a normal seeming world before you layer in the science fictional element. That way the reader can identify with the protagonist and get themselves situated before they realize something weird is going on. The sentimental message is a trifle “on the nose” and cliche, but very warm and intimate as well. How many of us have wished we could reach into someone else’s life and give them the one thing we wish we had received when we were in their shoes? It’s very heartening to read of technology being used to make that happen, when so often it feels like it pushes us apart.