Category: Flash Fiction

The New President’s New Army The new President had bone spurs which prevented him from being in the military, although he could still play golf, but he knew what the military should be: a glorious fighting force in his image.  So, when elected, he declared war was man’s work.  More, officers not white were promoted […]

Guns Paul grew up with guns.  Not in his home, but on he saw plenty on TV and in movies.  Guns in the hands of good guys and bad.  Handguns, automatic weapons, sniper rifles.  Paul knew what an Uzi looked like by the time he was fourteen, though he’d never seen one in real life.  […]

Donald Donald was born into a rich family.  His father wanted him in real estate but he yearned for something concrete so he plowed his money into a company he could dedicate to his needs: a toy company.  He fired the key executives and hired only those whose opinion was “Yes.”  He fired those who […]

Mated Initially, the affair was almost entirely sexual.  They were both enrolled in an evening cooking class where students were there not because they wanted to learn cooking.  After the class started, he joined her at a counter and they baked a cake together.  They went to her place afterwards and did not sleep together, […]

2084 Welcome to 2084.  It’s been a long haul–getting used to 6,900 sunscreen takes time.  I don’t go out.  Why bother?  What’s outside except dirt and cancer?  I live in a comfy apartment thirty feet underground.  Best protection against the tornadoes and storms and solar radiation.  Only the poor live above ground.  The nightly news […]

The Cure For Boredom Charlie was bored and did not understand why.  He had plenty of diverting toys.  TV, streaming, computer, gaming platform.  Books, magazines.  Two fish tanks, with guppies and cute cat fish.  But it increasingly was boring and felt wrong.  It was wrong to eagerly wait for the next TV show.  Video games […]

The Beast Comes For Us Victor usually wrote personal stories from his own life about what was important to him but, these days, he felt an obligation to write political satire—the anger demanded it.  Hatred was everywhere, promoted by the nation’s leaders.  The Beast appeared and slouched over the land, at first hesitant, increasingly relentless, […]

Politics And Used Cars The nation had been a world leader but its new President, a used car salesperson, saw it as an outdated older model which needed more than a paint job.  Living in a used car, like living in a democracy, can be comfy.  It is familiar, radiates shared history, and the seats […]

Conspiracies In the early days of the pandemic Phil was returning home from a quiet walk when he saw his next-door neighbour.  She had just returned from picketing the local hospital.  The hospital had no overflow of covid patients.  It was lying, the media were lying.  Covid did not exist.  The whole thing was a […]

The Illegal Alien A gentle alien from another galaxy landed on Earth, hid its spacecraft and got an apartment, a car and a job in a convenience store.  It was an explorer and would live among Earthlings and learn their ways. However, everyone around it quickly realized it was an alien, mostly because of the […]

Its All About The New President The New President believed life was all about him and believed now that he was elected he could prove it.  His first days in office were full of news reports about his flurry of executive orders.  The news was all about him.  As the months crawled by, the top […]

Dream World Anton put all of his valuable thoughts onto the internet: Substack, Patreon, his own website.  Each day he wrote something about the world he lived in, describing what was wrong and how it could be made right.  When he started uploading, he was quickly  thrilled, getting hits.  However, after a few months, the […]

Fake News Woodrow was fed up with the plethora of fake news—not fake news, exactly, but none of it was real news.  The media and web fed on politics and disasters.  A fireworks factory exploding was certain to make the nightly news.  So was a big flood.  The political stuff was full of distortions, the […]

The President Meets The Mole People He saw the world as a stage, he its star.  The new President went to the United Nations and, wanting to impress everyone, told the nations they were all losers.  He said the U.N. was corrupt, he was giving it far less money.  It was a proud moment for […]

Pigeonholed Some societies have a name for every type of relative, some a word for every type of cloud.  Melvin’s society had names for every type of person, based on politics, placing people in pigeonholes.  Everyone had a label for what they were.  It was so comfy!  You were conservative or liberal, rich or poor, […]

Cancel Culture The President had heard a great deal about cancel culture, and he agreed it if was the proper culture it should be cancelled so he ordered all the nation’s labs to stop growing improper cultures.  No one knew what improper cultures meant (and their funding was at stake) so they stopped any cultures […]

Woke? There were woke and anti woke.  Arnold felt both extremes needed some sleep.  Both misrepresented information, both knew they were the only way The nation, torn apart, was falling apart.  People were actually killing each other.  Political assassinations, school shootings, blowing up speedboats.  Arnold longed to hear snores.  But he heard only shouting and […]

The President’s Thin Skin The President’s political advisors worried that he was too thin skinned, reacting excessively to criticisms of him and his actions.  He thought he was fine and you never told this President he was wrong.  Therapy was not possible with this President, nor could they find effective drugs.  He had everyone terrified […]

The Bone Spur Cavalry The President did not like horses but did like riding, as it involved telling the horse what to do, giving him a sense of power.  Galloping into a fight also appealed to him (as long as he did not fight himself–he had bone spurs preventing military service.  During the one war […]

Late Night Blitzkrieg The President was angry when comedians on TV made jokes about him.  He did not mind private criticism–he just fired the disloyal subordinate (criticism was disloyal.)  He was used to being criticized publicly and, technically, he believed any publicity is good publicity.  While it always got under his skin befored, he could […]