I Watched Him Fall. . .

Flash Fiction

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I watched him fall into his cup of coffee, again, before I flew off.

     I needed a minute.

     Flying used to be easy. It’s harder for me now. Before it happened, I had buzzed around a little nervously. There was something different in the way my wings vibrated against the warm café air. It was just more demanding to hover about the teapots, cherry Bakewells, and sweet chocolate muffins.

     You know the feeling.

     Landing on the table, kicking a couple of cake crumbs, I noticed his 20s and 30s dripping from his watch and pooling on the table. The trees outside the coffee shop were reflected on the surface of his youth, colourless and oddly twiggy for the summer.

     He looked up from his coffee and nearly spoke to me. Spoke to me. A small fly. One so insignificant. One usually swept aside by the palm of all passers-by. But then, as I was thinking about the cruelty of strangers, his great finger came towards me and Flick! With one irritated thrust from him, I was propelled backwards into the air so fast I had forgotten who I was.

     Now I was angry. Staggering to my legs, gathering up my wits from the table, I took to the air. Dodging his formidable, swooshing hand, I smiled as I smacked right into his nose. I wasn’t quick enough to evade his other hand. Striking me, snapping my leg, I splashed into his drink. Treading coffee, struggling to stay above the surface, fighting to breathe, I made one herculean effort to swim free before he took a sip.

    As I sought shelter under the edge of his saucer, trying to recover, I saw the truth. He hadn’t even noticed that he’d nearly killed me; and I didn’t recognise his face anymore.

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to comment. If you enjoyed this short story, you might like some of my other writing. I have a section on literature (free to access) and another which contains the chapters of my novel: The Dracula Illusion. The first two chapters are free and the later ones are for subscribers.