ultra flash fiction
I don’t remember why I started doing this, I just thought it was cool. A whole story in a few sentences. The literature experience: conflict/resolution, character development, wanting to know what happens next - all in the space of a few minutes. I mean cut to the chase, who needs a whole book with 350 pages to tell you a story?
So the theme for today is ‘ultra flash fiction’. This stuff just leaps out of me, born from a single phrase or idea that zaps thru my brain and is so compelling that I write it down. Then I have to wrap it up in a story to honor it, so it has context, someplace to live in people’s minds.
"Give up regret. Abandon all negative thoughts about yourself."
"And how shall I do this?" responded Aganonamesh.
"You shall do this because otherwise you will fall in battle." said the oracle and then blinked out like Princess Leia in Star Wars.
Aganonamesh was startled. He had been on the mountain for 13 days waiting to make contact - when it came it was almost unintelligible.
He thought, 'In order to save my life I have to banish all negative thoughts and let go of regret.'
He got on his horse and came down from the mountain, through the forest and out onto the plain where could be seen fields and villages and a whole new world.
Of course Aganonamesh was a king, seeking counsel before a decisive battle. Of course this was from another age where oracles appeared like holograms on the sacred mountain and people rode horses and carried swords. At least that’s how I read it. Princess Leia may be a little anachronistic but that’s from the story teller’s point of view, he can be in any age he wants.
Below is one of the very first ultra-flash fictions i wrote back in 2018. I’m not sure where it came from. Oh yeah, now I remember.
The man who was mad at the world and vowed to live until everyone was dead
And they did die, one by one while he waited. One by one they disappeared from the world of the living, all the people he knew and even people who were complete strangers. Of course there were children being born too, which he hadn’t accounted for when he made his original vow years ago living alone on that mountain. Now he saw that it was necessary to amend the contract and that maybe it was good enough that just everyone he knew died.
And when that was done and he presumed that they were all dead, he prepared for a journey and took his cap and his backpack and his water bottle and walked down to the valley below his cave and to the city of men. Of course by this time he was very old and not able to walk that fast but that didn’t matter to the man he just kept walking.
When he finally reached the gates he called out to the gatekeeper, “Have they all died?”
And the gatekeeper called back, “No, not yet.”
“Have all of my friends died?” called the man.
“What friends have you?” replied the gateman
“What friends indeed, thou sayest correctly. I have been cheated and disrespected and ignored and interrupted and unloved. I have been living in a cave on the side of the mountain waiting for them all to die.”
“Well with any luck they’re all gone by now, old man. Enter the city at your will.”
He raised the bar and opened the gates and into the city of men walked the old man.
I know it’s kinda weird. People can be kinda weird. Hey I don’t feel that way, it was somebody else.
And here is the very first ultra flash fiction I ever wrote. I remember being amazed and delighted by it, reading it over and over, polishing it, savoring it.
“'Spiral matrix! Double spiral matrix! That's what it is people!’. He kept yelling it over and over, ‘Spiral matrix, don’t you see?’ stuff like that. He was marching around in the middle of the street in his pressed shirt and slacks. I wasn't sure if he was a crazy street person or an unemployed college professor. Then the cops showed up, I mean by this time traffic was backed up, some people were honking and he was just carrying on like a hero, like it was all about him and we were there to watch it.
‘It's a spiral matrix, brother can't you see it? A double matrix!’ he says to the cop, ‘A double spiral matrix!.’ They got him in the van and that was it. Traffic resumed.”
“Interesting story.”
“I'll have a mocha latte. I'm buying for my friend here.”
“And you sir?”
“A . . . mocha mocha.”
“Yeah, really don't have that.”
“Really? Can you make something like it maybe a . . . half mocha mocha?”
“Umh. I'll see what I can do.”
“Ah! He took on the challenge.”
That has so many antecedents in my life: the street people, the cafe experience, it’s easy to see where it came from. But what is the guy talking about? Beats me. Maybe he had a valid insight or maybe he was just a biology grad student with sleep deprivation and too many psychedelics. Hard to see, but compelling anyways. Or atleast I think so.
Ok. One more. This one actually is, I believe, the very first one I ever wrote. It was an experiment in brevity and emotional impact. How much impact can you pack in? It’s called, ‘And suddenly’.
. . . and suddenly there it was, the bright light, the moment in time, the feeling she had been looking for. Not being sure exactly what she was feeling, however, she backed off and retreated a few steps. She looked around, as if to confirm her context. Yes this is Macy's, fifth floor. Yes this is New York. Yes my husband has just died. Jumped off the boat. Jesus.
Her reflected self was looking at her from the mirror in Estee Lauder's blush department. It was shocking. ‘How are you?’ she wanted to say and at the same time ‘I love you’.
So there it is. Ultra flash fiction. How much can you pack into a few paragraphs. Post it up in comments. I’ll read it. You don’t have to do it right away, whenever it comes to you.
The thing is we live in an age of short little attention spans. I know mine is. Why not cut to the chase? Why not speak the truth? Why not get down to it? We don’t have that much time on this earth. No matter what age you are. How much can we say in how little if we treat words like jewels and time like a god?
I think that’s what fascinates me about ultra flash fiction.
“So let’s just say that everything dies, can you agree to that?”
“Ummm . . . “ intoned Audrey “ok”. She turned to look at her companion, “I’m not really that comfortable talking about mortality.”
“How about being born?” returned Rachael. “You want to talk about that?”
“No.”
“Ha, ha, ha. I love your reticence.” said Rachael.
They were walking along the Champs-Élysées. It was their first date, two lonely graduate students from the US.
It was Springtime. Dusk was falling.
The idea of being born birthed in both their minds at approximately the same time.