Flash Fiction Friday

For this week’s Flash Fiction Friday, I’m being lazy and reposting my entry for this week’s Flash! Friday contest. The story must have a central theme of “defeat” and be inspired by this picture:

Here’s what I came up with:

There was silence in the car all the way home. I had cried away all my words on mother’s shoulder once we were outside the Convention Center. As we pulled into our driveway, my mind still held on to that last devastating moment.

“I-n-t-e-r-r-a-g-a-t-e?”

“Sorry, that’s incorrect.”

Inside, Mom offered me a glass of Coke. But all I could think of was the gasp from the audience, magnified in the echo chamber of my imagination.

That evening, as I pushed food around my plate, Dad took me by the hand to his workshop.

“Here, James,” he said, showing me four small pieces of wood tacked together into a square shape. I looked up at him, confused. Without another word, he took a piece of wood and tacked it to the others. Then he tacked another. And another. Soon I was helping him build this square up, adding more wood, neither wanting to corrupt the sound of our labor with conversation.

“Okay,” he said after about half an hour. “That’s enough.”

I stared at the half-pyramid we had made.

“It’s for your trophy, son.”

“But—I lost, Dad,” I said, my voice small and weak.

Dad just smiled. “For next year.”

**********

The contest runs until midnight tonight, US Eastern Time, so there’s still plenty of time to enter if you’d like to give it a try. See the Flash! Friday blog for details.

Have a great weekend!