Ice, Ice, Baby
A double shot of flash fiction
This is the latest serving of ‘Double Espresso’; two short stories based on the same prompt - a 50-word tale, and a 100-word imagining. Two sho(r)t stories … the Double Espresso.
I am reading a book by Horatio Clare (gifted by a recent visitor to our Encouragement Farm). ‘Icebreaker - A Voyage Far North’ is at one level a gentle travelogue, tales from the Finnish icebreaker the author was invited to join as it worked to keep ocean-going vessels moving in and out of ports susceptible to ice. On the other hand, it is a stark reminder of the changing environmental picture … and the devasting consequences of climate change on parts of the world that protect our planet.
We have been busy - daily bicycle trips as we built up to an 11-day pedal from France to Wales - so my writing is on the back foot. The cumulative physical tiredness we are feeling is matched by a corresponding flatness in my brain. Ideas and words are struggling to battle past the list of practicalities filling my head as we wrestle with routes, distances, and logistics. I was delighted that the thought of ‘ice’ prompted a couple of ideas - we’ll see how they turn out.
I hope you enjoy these short stories, designed to be sipped as Coffee Break fiction.
Melting
“Of all the bars …”
Lame, but he’s cute. Ten years too young but ...
“You’ve got until this ice cube melts to convince me”.
He smiled disarmingly. “Tell me about yourself”. Surprised, she smiled inside, sensing him listening. Perhaps?
She gestured with her glass. “Same again, lots of ice”.
(50 words)
Unbroken
They said he was feral, untameable. They shipped him off to his grandmother’s, deep in the woods. No-one could see their lack of compassion there. The morning she didn’t wake, he left the cabin early, breath frosting the air, senses sharpened by piercing cold. Rough tracks were pitted by deep gouges of the truck that had delivered him. He crouched, fingers tracing the surface of the ice, his chewed nails tapping. The trapped bubbles reminded him of his previous life. The throaty roar of an approaching diesel engine signalled a return to that life. He melted into the dense woodland.
(100 words)
As someone who is always busy with something, though not such epic journeys as you are about to embark on admittedly, I know well the frustrations of having to share out my concentration, so/too often ‘writing’ doesn’t appear top of the list but squeezed in eloquent and in the case of the second especially, intriguing words though Barrie. I enjoyed both immensely!
This double espresso format really suits your style, Barrie. Always clever and well crafted.