Flash Fiction Friday

Happy Friday, everyone! Here’s some flash fiction for you. Just 200 words. I hope you enjoy!

Lines. Some curved, some straight. Some intersecting, some standing alone. Polly squinted her eyes and thought hard. These lines make sense, she knew they must. Big sister Jo used to sit with her and help her decipher the lines and curves. Her heart lifted as she thought of the black marks on the pages and Jo’s voice. Cat. Hat. Pop. Top.

Happy memories.

Something about the first shape seemed familiar. It looked like a half-moon. Jo said this shape could be soft like a slither, or hard like a club. Which was this? Perhaps the next shape would help. It looked like a snake’s tongue, so maybe the first shape was a slither. But what sound did this next one make?

Polly’s eyelids brimmed with tears of frustration, but she swiped them away with her dirty sleeve. There was no alternative; she had to get this right. The bottle of clear liquid could be anything. The shapes on the label could be the difference between life and death. And no-one was coming to help her. Not since the war that left her alone in her broken city. The war that left a seven year old girl to fend for herself.