Flash Fiction: The Deniers

Note: Flash fiction is a very short story of 1000 (maximum 1250) words or less. Here's one of my more recent ones...

 

The Deniers

The banner headlines scroll along the bottom of the screen on the display model in the TV shop. The two boys pause to read:
Santa Claus’s violation of restricted air space continues to be a major concern, according to military sources…
Slump in the economy blamed on Santa's Elves sourcing parts for their toys from places like China and Indonesia “... places that don't even celebrate Christmas!” said one industry spokesman
Child in Yorkshire traumatised when the snowman he built started dancing…
‘Poor kid,’ says Paul. ‘That's why I never make snowmen, especially close to Christmas.’
‘Why is there always so much hoopla about Santa every Christmas?’
‘Donno. I don't think there even is a Santa Claus.’
‘What about all that violating the no-fly zone and all that?’ asks Johnny.
‘Probably just a really fancy UFO or something.’
‘Yeah, you're probably right.’

Johnny has only known Paul since the beginning of the school year, but they're already best friends. Tonight, he's sleeping over at Johnny's house, and they're in the corner, building things with Johnny's legos while all the grown-ups are watching a game show on TV.
Several of Johnny's other relations are over on a visit, as one of the contestants on the game show is Cindy, Johnny's young looking aunt with the long beautiful blond hair. And now it appears that Aunt Cindy is the lucky winner! She is granted three wishes. All the adults are glued to the screen, but Johnny and Paul go on with their playing, only giving mild attention to what's happening.
The game show hostess, a half size human in a glittering white dress, holding a wand, hovering in mid air with the aid of her dragonfly wings, says, “Name your three wishes, and they'll be granted.”
Aunt Cindy says, ‘Let me see, how about a Lamborghini?’
The hostess says, ‘Granted!’, waves her wand, and a Lamborghini materialises on the set.
The adults in the room gasp, saying things like, ‘Ooo!’ ‘I hope she takes us on a ride!’ etc.
‘Dream on!’ says Aunt Margaret, an elderly relative, as she walks into the room. ‘That leach will never do a good turn for anyone!’
‘That’s for sure,’ said Johnny, only loud enough for Paul to hear, ‘but neither will Aunt Margaret.’
The game show hostess goes on, ‘What's your second wish?’
‘A cryptocurrency account containing a billion Bubblecoins!’
The fairy presenter waves her wand, and Aunt Cindy's phone dings a message. She looks at her phone and squeals with delight, jumping up and down.
‘Hah!’ scoffs Aunt Margaret. ‘Now, all I have to do is go onto that show and wish the bottom drops out of the Bubblecoin market, and that car deteriorates into a pile of rust - and, lemme see, third wish: all her hair falls out!’
‘And your third wish?’
A naughty look appears on Aunt Cindy's face. ‘I wish my worst enemy would drop dead!’
The fairy replies, ‘Oooh! What a dark naughty wish!’ She waves her wand.
Immediately, Aunt Margaret clutches her chest and collapses. Uncle Pete runs to her to try to help her. Aunt Jane, a nurse, also helps.
On the screen, Aunt Cindy's phone dings again. She looks at it and cries, ‘Oh no! My Bubblecoins are worthless!’
‘Of course they’d be,’ says Paul. ‘A billion of them suddenly added would make the rest of them almost nothing.’
Then there's a noise behind her. She whirls around to find that the Lamborghini has crumbled into a pile of rust.
‘Probably made of cardboard to begin with, ’ says Paul. ‘I mean, where's a fairy gonna get a Lamborghini to start with?’
‘Oh dear!’ says the fairy. ‘That poor soul must have been watching, and made a wish or two herself!’
‘But - but…’ She's distracted as her hair begins falling out.”
Aunt Jane can't find any vital signs.
’Don't you know?’ the fairy goes on, ‘Whenever you make a death wish, the last wishes of the victim also come to pass.’
Now, nobody's paying attention to the TV, as they're all gathered around Aunt Margaret, saying things like, ‘That Cindy’s done it now!’ ‘She’s gone too far this time!’
The two boys are on their feet, but they can't get any closer, as the grownups are crowded around her.
On the TV screen, a bald Aunt Cindy is in hysterics, and is being carried off the set.
‘Hah! Serves her right!’ says Uncle Albert.
‘She'll never be welcome in this house again!’ says Johnny's mum.
Aunt Margaret wasn't that type of person in his life that Johnny was likely to miss very badly, but still - wishing her dead?
Johnny asks Paul, ‘Do you really think it was Aunt Cindy's wish that killed Aunt Margaret?’
‘Naa. I'm sure there's a natural explanation.’

At recess, the kids are lounging on the climbing frame, discussing the history lesson.
‘I don't believe all that, what Ms Maier said about King Gilbert,’ says Sally. ‘Was he really a frog before Queen Mabel kissed him?’
‘If I were him,’ said Paul, ‘I'd go look for that witch and call her a smelly whore or something, so she'd turn me back into a frog again.’
The kids all laugh
‘Yeah,’ responds Jennifer. ‘He never looks very happy, does he!’
‘I'm sure frogs are a lot happier,’ says Hank.
‘If he was a frog,’ says Johnny. ‘I mean, do you really believe all that?’
‘Not really.’
‘No.’
‘Hoi! You lot of little twits!’ It was one of the big kids. ‘You don't believe the king transformed from a frog? You probably don't even believe in Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny, I bet. You a bunch of babies or what?’
They're all quiet.
‘Well, I've grown outta that, so I have. Why, when I get bigger, I'm gonna go fight a dragon, and win me a princess, so I will! I don't know about you soppy lot.’
He walks away as the kids make faces.
Hank says, ‘They always get like that when they get bigger.’
‘Gosh! I Hope I don't,’ says Jennifer.
Johnny and Paul are finally by themselves.
Johnny tells Paul, ‘If we could wish for things and they come to pass, do you know what I'd wish for?’
‘What?’
‘I'd wish I'd stop growing, so I don't become like that.’
‘I tried that already.’
‘How?’
‘I was out with my mummy shopping,’ Paul began, ‘and I see a coin. I pick it up, and mum sees it and gets all excited, and says, “That's a magic coin! Go right now and throw it into that well over there - the wishing well - and make a wish!” I really don’t want to. I’d rather spend it on gummy bears. But she makes me do it, and she tells me, “Don't tell anyone your wish.” So I make a wish that I’ll never grow up, so I never have to believe all this stuff.’
‘Now you done gone and told me!’
‘I don't mind. Wishes like that don't work anyway, and besides, that was twenty years ago.’

Israel had twins, their names were Christianity and Islam...

...perhaps not in the sense that we normally think; they were born 600 years apart. The elder twin, Christianity wasn't called by that name at first. It was the local street urchins and the bullies who began calling him that as a taunt. They kept it up for so long that soon he was calling himself that, and the name stuck.

At first, Christianity took after his mother, which meant he reflected the two divine attributes, Justice and Mercy -- also known as Holiness and Love. In fact, he reflected them so well that the mother became jealous, and he began to find it difficult to live in the same house with her. This was also due to the fact that Israel's husband had called, dressed as a beggar; and she, failing to recognise Him, had turned him away. However the son had recognised him, and they stayed in communication. He promised the child that one day, they would all be reunited.
As time went on, the son could no longer stand to live in the same house as his mother, and left home. About that time, the house was seized and the mother also had to leave. They became a broken family.

Cut off from his mother's influence, Christianity began to emphasise the divine attribute of Love and Mercy, neglecting that of Justice and Holiness -- receiving only the new and rejecting the old. He also began to emulate the neighbourhood boys in other ways, and was soon unrecognisable as the son of his mother.

This was truly sad, as the child had been destined to reign as a prince alongside his mother, a queen, and his father, King Messiah. This would bring perfect balance to the universe, however it couldn't happen, because the child who was to be prince was away from home, and his character was becoming increasingly unbalanced. Even as it was, the mantel of “Prince of the Universe” was still on the child, and as such, his imbalance also affected the universe.

What happened next was not the original plan of Him who was to reign as King, but it was as though nature were correcting the imbalance. He allowed it to happen, knowing that it would bring about his purpose in the end, and in the mean time, there would be a semblance of balance in the universe. So, because of the imbalance in the cosmos, a twin was born. Just as the older twin was the son of Abraham through faith, the younger was also a son, through Ishmael. That twin's name was Islam.

Everything that the elder twin rejected, the younger twin embraced. The elder child had clung to mercy at the expense of justice, so the younger twin clung to justice, but rejected mercy. The elder twin had become careless in describing the Holy Trinity, giving the impression that he believed in three gods instead of One God manifested as three persons. The younger twin responded with, “That's polytheism! There is only one God,” and rejected the Trinity. The elder child had begun to describe the doctrine of the Incarnation and Virgin Birth in a pagan sort of way, as though God had intimate relations with Mary to give birth to Messiah, thus His title, the “Son of God”. The younger brother was repulsed by this idea, and retorted, “No! God cannot have children!”

Never-the-less, the younger twin did believe in the Messiah, even acknowledging that He was the Word of God, not realising that that's what the term, “Son of God” really meant in the first place. But he didn't believe in the crucifixion and the resurrection, because those were the ultimate expressions of Mercy. In essence, he had rejected Mercy because his elder brother had so distorted it by divorcing it from Justice. However, his own understanding of Justice was likewise distorted.

It was truly a broken family, and all nature wept. The mother, having fled from her home and living wherever she could, was tormented and persecuted by both of her children – when they weren't too busy fighting each other.

Then, one day the first child had an awakening. He began to realise what a horrible son he had been, and began, by degrees, returning to his mother. The mother's heart also began to open to her son. The son asked her, “Please, remind me of the truths I've neglected this past 2000 years, like Justice the Fear of the Lord.”

As the mother began to open up to her child, her eyes also opened to King Messiah, whom she had once turned away from her door when he came dressed as a beggar. He had been communicating with the elder twin from a distance all along, but the child had not been very good at remembering all that he told him, and didn't know how to mix the new with the old. But now that the King was revealing Himself more directly, the elder son also began to think more clearly and understand the will of the King, and the divine attributes of Justice and Mercy.

Another thing began to happen: the more the older child embraced the more balanced view, his twin began to fade away as his soul began to merge with that of his older brother. Soon, they were no longer two separate twins, but one child. Only a shell of the younger twin's body remained, sort of like a zombie that continued to put up a fight until it disintegrated. There were also other zombies, clones of the mother and elder child that had spawned when the reunion came. For a short time, all the zombies joined forces in an attempt to devour the Queen and the Prince, trying to bring about a zombie apocalypse. That was short-lived, and soon total harmony was restored in the universe as King Messiah reigned with the Queen and the Prince for the rest of eternity.

Image: By William Fraser [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Flash Fiction: Little Red Riding Hood in historical context

Little Red Riding Hood knocked on the door of her grandmother's cottage. A gentle voice inside said, 'Come in, dearie.'

Little Red Riding Hood pushed the door open and carried her basket of treats across to the bed where her grandmother rested. She stood there and gazed at her grandmother.

'What is it, dearie?” coaxed her grandmother.

'Grandmother, you do have very big ears. All my friends grandmothers don't have nearly as big ears as you do.'

'All the better to hear you with, my dearie. I'll bet none of them could hear nearly as well as I do.'

'Yeah,' acknowledge Little Red Riding Hood. 'I just about have to shout to get them to hear me – but – Grandmother, what big eyes you have!'

'All the better to see you with, my dearie! All the other granny's are blind as bats, I bet.'

'Yeah, they are – and Grandmother, what a big nose you have!'

'All the better to smell with! Why, I knew you were coming when you were yet a mile away!'

'And what big, sharp white teeth you have!'

'Yes, I keep them white and sharp by chewing on bones. Now, let me see what you have there.' She lifted the cloth on the basket. 'Ahh! My favourite! A loin bone, oh! And a shoulder bone! Ahh, full of lovely bones. You must have had a feast! Thank your mother for me, won't you?'

'I will, Grandmother.'

There was a knock at the door.

'Go open the door for you uncle, will you, Riding Hood,' said Grandmother.

Little Red Riding Hood opened the door, and there stood a big burly wood-cutter.

'Uncle Remus!' cried Little Red Riding Hood, joyfully.

'How's my favourite niece!' he said as he swooped her off her feet. 'And how's my dear mother?'

'As well as can be expected, I suppose. Your sister-in-law sent me these lovely bones.'

'What a sweet gal she is, my brother's widow. Speaking of Romulus, I could have certainly used his help on this project.'

'Yes,' sighed Grandmother. 'It's too bad about his “accident”. That was shortly before Little Red Riding Hood was born. But it's certainly good of you to name the new city after him.'

'If it ever gets finished. At this rate...?'

'Rome won't be built in a day!' said Grandmother.