I wrote a story once and stepped over the word AND, nearly tripped over the D. Two sentences later and the word BACON smelled just like its definition so I took a bite and it did not disappoint. How often do you get to put the word BACON in a story and the one time I do and it tastes just like bacon? My dog and I shared the whole word in 11.4 seconds.
The next paragraph had a bloody violent scene in it and my fingertips ran red with the organic matter. I was not injured per se. I did not suffer open wounds yet the skin of my fingertips bled all over the keyboard. Which actually makes sense.
Editing the story I read it out loud. The words floated out of my mouth into the air in bubbles of Times New Roman font and then popped as soon as the next word was read. My dog barked at the bubbles just like he barks at the vacuum cleaner, at the UPS driver, at the lawn guy. So I bent down to him and spoke and he snapped his jaws at the floating words and when his teeth came together they sounded like two rocks smacking into each other. His breath smelled like a certain pork product.
After snapping at some of the word bubbles his barking became high-pitched as if the bubbles were filled with helium. Here's this 85-pound dog sounding like a chihuahua. I pronounce "chihuahua" like chi-hoo-ah-hoo-ah and draw out the "hoos" so my dog can eat longer bubbles.
Out with the red pen and I mark on these pages the things in this story I wish to change, add or delete, wondering if it is a story and knowing that it isn't but deciding to pretend it is because there are some words here, words that I trip over and eat and smell and bleed and speak. The end.
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Laura Shell has been published in NUNUM, Typishly, Maudlin House, and many others. Her first anthology of paranormal stories, The Canine Collection, was released this year. She's a prolific writer and submitter of flash fiction. You can find more about her work at laurashellhorror.wordpress.com