Category: Flash

Flash: Always Lead with Kindness

Erin Penn Leave a comment

ID 75056156 © Mik3812345 | Dreamstime.com

“Pops, will you slow down? Ain’t we suppose to be running in the other direction?” The thirty-five year old man scrambled over fallen pine trees.

At the crest of the impact crater, his gray-haired father bellycrawled the final few feet, his deer bow in hand. Pye, Junior’s teenage daughter, right beside him. Nuts, the two of them. And him, the tree tying them together following in their wake. He crouched crawled to their location.

Looking down in to the cleared sand of the pine barrens, he saw a circular UFO with the disc vertical and the half the circumference buried deep. Junior quiet-whistled against his teeth, “Someone is having a very bad day.”

“I’m not sure,” Pye squinted through the early mist rising out of the aquifer below the pine barrens sand. “I mean if they are a spinning ship, and that is kind-of what it looked like as they streaked overhead, then the gravity would be on the outer edge, so if you were to dismount, it would be through the floor. It would make sense for flying saucers to land edge up, right?”

“Good point, girl” His father whispered.

Junior was glad all those comics and adventure books leaked something into his kid’s brain. “Still it is a crash, pretty sure.”

George grunted agreement.

“Any landing you walk away from is a good landing, isn’t that what you say Pops?” Pye asked.

“Not seeing much walking.” George observed and started to stand. “The mist has made down the walls and isn’t burning off near the hull. Whatever that material is, it took care of the heat quickly. Come on, they might need help.”

Pye bounced up, following her grandfather down the sandy sides of the crater in a sideways slide. Youthful curiosity burst the question out burning in Junior as he followed the two with the dune-sand walk he picked up during his time in Afghanistan.  “What should we do if they say, ‘Take us to your leader’?”

“Well, election is next week, so I guess I’ll make introductions depending on their attitude.” George limped across the loose sand in the bottom of the crater. “If they are rude, they’ll get one. Nice, the other.” He winked at Junior. “But in the meantime, they might be in trouble. Always lead with kindness.”

“But pack heat while doing so.” The perky teenager touched the flare gun she carried beside the hunting arrows.

(words 402; first published 11/2/2024)

Flash: Dies Irae

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by Joel Wyncott on Unsplash

The ghosts were at it again. Squeaking the attic ceiling vents, walking back and forth on the wooden floorboards, and Rascal sounded like he was about to hit the pots and pans in the kitchen. I had to sleep tonight; tomorrow the new job starts and I needed to be fresh. Ugh.

I got out of bed and crossed to my violin collection. So far, I had been nice about all the noise, after all, I just moved in. But enough was enough. They wanted noise, they will get noise.

Do you know just how shrill you can push a treble violin?

I put in my ear plugs, grateful for the lack of neighbors around this old Victorian I picked up for a song, and started playing. After the screecher I nicknamed Nails on Chalkboard in my head, to establish dominance, I switched to my fiddle and rocked Fire on the Mountain.

The temperature in the bedroom dropped enough I could see my breath. The four annoyances were an audience now.

Putting away the fiddle, I reached for case number three of the night, my normal violin.

Looking at their hazy forms, I addressed them for the first time with more than curses.

“Alright, you and I, we need an agreement. I need sleep time to make money to pay for the house. Keep it repaired and a roof over our heads. I assumed you want that since you aren’t going anywhere.”

I waited to see if I would get a reaction. I could feel a hole, an anticipation, a waiting.

“You let me have my eight hours, and I will play a song a night. Don’t let me sleep, and I will find the most hateful songs you have ever heard.”

I could hear them laugh at that.

“Oh, you don’t think I won’t play ‘Be Kind to Your Webfooted Friends’ for three hours? Try me.”

One of them tightened up their mist.

“Oh, you know that song. Good.” I moved my bow to point at the others. “Tell them. Tell them I will find other songs, something from their eras if I must. Trust me that I will find something.” I lifted the violin up. “But I’m not here about the stick. Like I said, a song a night if I am healthy and getting my sleep. Do you want to hear one?”

Two moved, the hole to be filled returned.

I poured Verdi’s Dies Irae into it.

(words 410; first published 10/20/2024)

Flash: Harm’s Highway

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by Daniele D’Andreti on Unsplash

Douglas Yu edged over to the ward’s entry desk as maternity took the active labor handoff from the emergency room team the technician had run from ambulance to the second floor. Marigold Miles, the receptionist administrator, asked in sympathy as the sweaty medical professional leaned against the desk. “Diameter?”

“Arrived at ten and baby’s a breech. Jeff had his arm all the way up her hoo-hah trying to rotate the kid when they arrived.”

Marigold shuddered. “Responders are a different animal.”

“Ain’t that the truth.” After a couple more minutes of catching his breath, grateful he didn’t have to add another birth notches on his ER belt, Douglas looked over at Marigold monitoring her station’s equipment. “Speaking of different animals, do you know what happened with that Jane Smith trying to Surrender her kid while still pregnant?”

“Oh, did she come in on your watch?”

“Checked her in myself.”

Marigold smiled, always loving to share gossip. Maternity had the best morsels. “We got everyone involved from admin to lawyers. You know how they hated the revenue loss of IVF; well, since ‘nothing is illegal the first time’ as Jimmy in legal says, this was the perfect test case. The Doc-on-duty consulted with Psych to sign off on the woman being a danger to herself and her baby if she remained pregnant, so we induced while getting social services on the horn. Baby boy Smith got his blue blanket while mommy signed over all her rights and named his dad. I think it was the first time ever we had a birth certificate with “unknown” under the mom.”

“Jesus.”

“Right, so social got police, since the boyfriend had locked her out of the mutual apartment in the rain at night, endangering the baby, and they went over to her place to get her stuff out, including her purse and they found where he had cut her ID into bits. With her phone, she called her friend and they skedaddled. The police then went to his place of business to let him know about the baby, and that is when we get the next part of the story.” Marigold wiggled her eyebrows.

“It gets better?”

“It gets better.” The admin glanced at her monitors, then leaned on the lower desk to get closer. “He came here, since social needed him to take the baby. After all he is the only name on the birth certificate. First he claims it wasn’t his, but, damn, that kid had his face. It had nearly twenty-four hours to get over being smooshed out the canal. We offered to do a DNA, so he says he didn’t want the kid, just the girl. He says he wouldn’t have poked holes in the condoms if he known he was going to get stuck with a screaming baby by himself.”

“He what?”

“Yeah, forced pregnancy. Basically like being raped for nine months. Your attacker is always with you. Fucking mental. Anyway, he signed away his rights then ran out of here saying he was going to get the bitch for leaving him. Social says he figured out which friend was helping out Jane and banged on her door until 9-1-1 got him out of the building. They had kept in touch to let her know if he claimed the kid or not. Seems like Jane didn’t want daddy to have the kid, but saw no way around it. Said it wouldn’t be fair for her to have the kid when every time she looked it in the face for the rest of her life and think how much she hated its father and what happened to her. She was scared for Baby Smith, but she could only save herself.”

“Did she get out?”

“Last news was restraining order and a friend network to get her out-of-state.”

“And the kid.”

“Momma Jane had taken care of herself, no drugs. She was a good kid, just in a bad situation. I think if she felt even some control over her life and her body, she could have kept Baby Boy, but…”

“Yeah.”

“Well, white newborns, all signed over to the state get snatched up easy. Social says he is with a foster-adoption couple and his two dads adore him.”

“All’s well, that end’s well?”

“Hon, you just showed your male privilege, but that is okay. Jane had to jump states, has no job history she dare access, no home, one suitcase, and is cut off from half her friends or more. She just gave birth and has no medical insurance, and a part of her will always remember she had to give up her baby because of a toxic man. Baby boy will grow up wondering why his momma didn’t love him, and that poison man is out there, lying his ass off, and likely will pull this shit on another woman.”

Yu sighed. “You’re right. Well, at least things have a chance of getting better.”

“We got a long way to go for that to happen. Legal is pissed that no one flagged situation so they can duke it out in court and maybe start nibbling at getting our IVF money maker back.” Marigold rotated back to her screens. “Don’t forget to vote next Tuesday.”

“You too.”

“Already sent it in, I got back-to-back shifts scheduled.”

“See you next birth.”

“You too.”

(words 892; first published 10/13/2024)

Safe Surrender Duology

  1. Safe Surrender (10/6/2024)
  2. Harm’s Highway (10/13/2024)

Flash: Safe Surrender

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Maturity Tag: Language

Black rain sparkled against the pavement outside the hospital’s emergency room as the automatic doors softly opened and closed, letting in another needy soul seeking care and compassion. The admittance admin glanced over as she worked on assigning the emergency in front of her their place in triage, a few stitches likely would be enough but a fully certified medical professional would need to make the final call. The woman at the door turned sideways, her profile against bright lights immediately jumped her to the front of the line. Pregnancy won most triage sorting battles.

One of the ER staff rushed forward, skipping the normal administrative procedures.

“Hello. My name is Douglas Yu, I am an ER technician. Are you okay dear?” he asked, “Any bleeding or contractions?”

“No,” she said rubbing her belly, a frown etched between her eyes, “I just want it out. I can leave the baby here, right?”

“What, um, is this an emergency? Is something happening?”

“No, no. I am just done with this. I waited seven months, it should be viable, just get it out and I can leave.”

The medical professional blinked. “Ma’am, we don’t just do that.”

“Sure you do, you induce all the time.” The woman pushed her wet hair back, her voice raising. “Just give me the shots, get this fucking kid out, and let me get on with my life.”

“Ma’am while you can leave a baby at the hospital if you are unable to take care of it, your child has to be born first. It has to BE a baby.”

“Look, they said it was a baby as soon as conception, it’s conceived. They said I can’t get an abortion. I’m not asking for an abortion. I waited seven fucking months. I did the time. It can live on its own. GET.IT.OUT.”

The tech waved off the police officer walking towards them from his normal station near the door. “Ma’am, ma’am. Let’s come over here and get you signed in.”

“I don’t want a pysch eval, I’m fine.” She eyed him as they walked over. “I am just done with this bullshit of not allowed to even leave the state because I got knocked up because they cut off my damn birth control. Get this thing out.”

“Can I have your license?” the technician fired up his computer station.

“Nope, John took it because he thought I would hop states on him. The bastard isn’t wrong. As soon as it’s legal, I’m gone. I got a new one ordered and it should arrive next week at a friend’s house so this shit doesn’t happen again.”

“Insurance card maybe?”

“Do you SEE a purse? I fucking walked here because the bastard is out with friends getting drunk tonight.” She sat down in a wheelchair a gray-haired hospital volunteer brought over. “Just call me Jane Smith, no insurance because I got fired for being fucking pregnant, though the boss didn’t word it that way. I was taking too much time throwing up in the bathroom.”

“Sounds like a bad situation ma’am. I am sorry you have had to live with it. Do you have a primary caregiver?”

“Nope, no insurance.” The woman naming herself as Jane crossed her arms, then took a deep breath, one of her hands moving up to grip her shoulder. “Please, I just want this nightmare to end.”

“I’m going to transfer you to OBGYN area. They might have a solution for you.”

“I told you the solution. They said it’s a baby even in a petri dish, they said if you can’t take of a baby to drop it off, they said it can’t be by abortion, so here I am, get it out and let me escape.”

The tech locked his screen after it beeped the second floor nursing staff could accept a non-emergency patient. Pulling a bracelet off the printer, he wrapped it around the woman’s wrist. “Mr. Shepherd here will take you to them. Good luck.”

(words 665; first published 10/6/2024)

Safe Surrender Duology

  1. Safe Surrender (10/6/2024)
  2. Harm’s Highway (10/13/2024)

Flash: Sandwyvern

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Image by Leo on Unsplash

Kai flattened to the ground, spreading legs and arms and hoping the preysuit masked his breathing and heartbeat sufficiency. Beside him, Pele slowly lowered into a similar position, disturbing the gravel as little as possible where they had been searching for gold and minerals. Sandwyverns hunted by vibrations, lacking eyes. The tumbled rocks lining the Broad River’s summer-dry flood plain provided perfect opportunity for the creatures to swim upstream from their primary shore habitat to reach their laying grounds.

The clay red creature screamed, tilting its head this way and that to pick up the echo in its sensing antennae. It licked its long, forked tongue into the air, clearly smelling the humans, but unsure where they were. Another scream sent synapses scrambling to remember not to scream back as the register climbed shrilly and raked their eardrums.

The two gatherers managed to retain their wits and remained silence and still. Kai ignored the scorpion walking across his hand. The preysuit masked heat perfectly.

The most a sandwyvern ever screeched according to the records was nineteen times. Normally only four would satisfy it, but heading upstream to lay eggs, they became determined hunters. The colony biologists believed recent blood may be needed for one of the species reproductive processes, and it seemed human blood served just as well as banthum and wicket.

Lucky them, the planet could eat them as easily as they could eat the animals and plants of the planet.

Six shrieks. Hopefully, this creature won’t be a record-breaker.

(words 251; first published 9/22/2024)