The Metro Ride

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.

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I am indebted to

Sharron Bassano

for her observations from rides on the metro bus. Beautifully fashioned snapshots of lives fleetingly intersecting. An idea popped into my thoughts about an ‘old man on a bus’ and the way people become invisible as they age. But there are stories in all of us just bursting to get out.

These are two of those stories. Coffee break fiction.

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Photo by abi ismail on Unsplash

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Habitual

Each weekday he sat by the same window. His piercing blue eyes noticed everything. He habitually tapped his ring finger on the scuffed nut-brown leather of his briefcase. Tap-tap-taptap-tap. Morse code, perhaps, giving off impatient signals? Nearly three years as a retired spycatcher but he still couldn’t let it go.

(50 words)

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Grown-ups are sometimes altogether … well, too grown up. How often does it take the innocence of a child to unlock our understanding?

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Out of the Mouths of Babies

The old man sank into his frayed overcoat, hunched against the chill of loneliness. Embarrassed passengers ignored the quiet sobs that intruded on their obsession with throwaway digital ephemera. The little girl in the ‘Hugs are always the right size’ t-shirt whispered in a voice that didn’t know how to whisper, “Why is he sad, Mummy?”.

The young woman shushed her daughter, eyes glued to the phone screen. Plastic seating squeaked as the toddler slid canary yellow wellingtons to the puddled floor.

His smile was sad, and he clutched the crumpled photo tightly.

“Would you like a hug, Mister Man?”.

(100 words)

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I would love to read where the picture prompt takes you if you fancy adding a story in the comments. Perhaps you’ll write it while sipping your coffee.

Double espresso, anyone?