Miramichi Flash showcases four outstanding flash fiction: “In The Event Of A Famine” by Salvatore Difalco; “Complicit” by Gay Degani; “We Feed Them To The Lions” by Paul Thompson; and “The Arnolfini Funeral” by Jan Kaneen; in its August 2021 Issue, today. — Enjoy!
“In The Event of A Famine” by Salvatore Difalco
Everything in this house is edible,” the real estate agent said. “I mean everything, the foundation, the brickwork, the plaster, the windows. That is to say, in the event of a famine, a family of three would be able to survive for approximately ten years eating the house.”
“Complicit” by Gay Degani
The front door slams. Walls shake. A vase of tasseled wheat slides through my hands onto the kitchen floor. Glass shards lie among stalks as late afternoon sun spills gold through gold and I hear his boots in the hall.”
“We Feed Them To The Lions” BY Paul Thompson
Nine years old, with parents distracted, a boy falls into the lion enclosure.
It looked more like a jump, his sister says.
The boy lands safely, in the artificial lake beneath him. He swims to the shoreline, to his new home. Murals of the savanna and non-native plant life. Background noise played through speakers. The stare of an audience above him.
“The Arnolfini Funeral” by Jan Kaneen
Midsummer heat carries his musk up the screw of the staircase, so I know he is coming. I curtsy low averting my eyes, but I need no eyes to see him: that left wrist three threads smaller than the right; privy parts dressing leftward; waist a thumbs-width wider since he wed my lady. His poulaine slippers taper long over the flagstones as he bids me rise and places the bundle into my arms with the care he might a swaddled infant.
