Miramichi Flash showcases four outstanding flash fiction: “The Bug Man” by Meg Pokrass, “Post-Atomic Bovary” by Morgan Harlow, “Things Like This” by Dave Alcock and “Go Bother Camões” by Meredith Wadley in its January 2022 Issue, today. — Enjoy!
“THE BUG MAN” BY MEG POKRASS
Ma often said that despite everything, we were lucky people, because the Bug Man came over to our house for free, sprayed in places nobody had ever seen. Places that we never knew were there.
“POST-ATOMIC BOVARY” BY MORGAN HARLOW
How often had she imagined a safe place where she might go and live alone, an old abandoned cabin, small and sturdy, built high on some isolated mountaintop. A meadow of alpine flowers would grow right up to her door, and the cheerful presence of birds and mice and butterflies would enliven the stark dramatic backdrop of sky and rocky outcropping. Mountain sheep would graze contentedly farther out, and now and then an elk or a bear would come up from the wilderness of forest and rushing rivers.
“THINGS LIKE THIS” BY DAVE ALCOCK
The shelf in the riverbed was behind them and so was the roar of the rough white water. The river was now almost motionless. It was glassy and gliding and calm. Paul watched a current as it slid round a boulder and marked the river’s brim with a spinning silver stream. He saw the mirrored trees going down through the waterway, toward the blue sky beneath a mass of green leaves.
“GO BOTHER CAMÕES” BY MEREDITH WADLEY
In the walled garden of a Cova da Beira hillside villa, four-year-old Sofia Mariana’s avô napped, shaded by the branches of a cherry tree. Sweet, juicy fruit weighted the tree’s branches. Sofia Mariana, wishing to reach eat the cherries, climbed upon avô’s chaise lounge.
