Friday, February 3, 2012

"Vow"

More wine, darling? Here you are. No, none for me.

Recognize the bottle? Lisbon? Our honeymoon? That restaurant overlooking the water?

Funny, I recognized it in a heartbeat. Not that I've recognized everything. I missed your glances at our waitress that evening. And, later, all the supposed nights out with the boys. Your endless construction projects in the basement.

Don't stand. Well, you can try, but you won't get far. Moderation in all things. Infidelity. Homicide. Wine.

I took our vows seriously. I meant it when we said, "'Till death do us part." Which it will. Right about ... now.

Postscript: To listen to audio of this and other stories, please download Season One of the I Saw Lightning Fall podcast here.

10 comments:

Jackie Jordan said...

Nice! Very nice and encouraging, Loren! I've been working on a lengthy piece lately, but I think I'll shelve it for awhile and write some Flash pieces. Thanks!

Loren Eaton said...

Anne Lamott once wrote about the importance of regular, short pieces, and I find that they keep things fresh for me. I hope they do the same for you!

Chestertonian Rambler said...

Nice. Flash fic is actually a valid genre, you've taught me.

Now if only the people at Flash Fiction Online would be convinced...my latest completed piece is too SHORT to be considered flashfic by their standards!

Loren Eaton said...

You're too kind, sir.

You know, there are actually Twitter micro-short publications. Microcosms, Nanoism and Seven by Twenty are a few.

Chestertonian Rambler said...

Twitter, dear sir, is a bridge too far. I disbelieve.

John Wiswell said...

I dug how you got this slightly sinister tone to emerge from something so brief and rapid.

Loren Eaton said...

CR,

They're more like clever setups, but they're still (mostly) worth one's time.

Loren Eaton said...

John,

Thanks, sir! I like these little pieces. They provide good practice and force economy of language.

Unknown said...

I like this take on "revenge". The combination of Infidelity, Homicide, Wine have a nice ring to them and play well with the piece as a whole.

Loren Eaton said...

Thanks, Aidan! I hope it was clear that the narrator poisoned the wine.