National Flash Fiction Day 2020

I was really looking forward to Sunday the 7th of June. Well it was National Flash Fiction Day and I'd sent a tale - under 300 words as per the rules - for submission. With over 1600 entries I had all my fingers and toes crossed. Would my piece be chosen for publishing?

Yesterday evening I received an email. My story had been selected and it had been published.

National Flash Fiction Day? I love it.

And the editors are very nice to converse with via email.

Biding Time by Rick Haynes

I’m not the home I once was. My slates are cracking my stonework is covered in moss and humans left long ago. How I miss the laughter from the children, the dogs sleeping alongside the warming fire in my main room, and the care the two humans took in looking after me.

Alas, time moves fast and my time is nearly over.

All I have now are the memories and they will slowly fade as the years pass ever quickly. I will rot and return to the land that gave me life. The stones quarried from the mighty mountains, the wood freely given from the forest, the clear cold water from the well and the land beneath my roots, I thank them for giving me life.

A familiar sound is coming my way. It is a vehicle, an aged one. Could it be my old friends? Please, please let it be so.

The car slowly rolls to a stop.

A man and a women open the car doors and walk towards my solid front door.

They have a key, my door opens and they enter.

They kiss, they hug, they show no signs of being cold.

The heart of my home is beating faster than ever.

Could they? Would they? Do they want me?

The man moves to the fireplace where the wood is stacked, ready to burn once more.

A flame, the wood ignites and my heart is afire.

“This is where I was born. I’m so glad dad left it to me for this will always be a special place for us and our children.

None of the slates dared to move now for I was back as the true guardian of my home.

For didn’t I always have a sign on my front door.