Flashed Out

By Daniel Warner

FLASHED OUT is a short story collection written in just one week! From coming of age stories to outlandish sci-fi, the collection will take you to worlds where you are sure to find something to chuckle and weep about.

You will start with on "The Warm-up Day" with a few short endearing stories to get you comfortable. Then, stay in on "The Bottle Day". "The Day Off" will offer sad and funny stories from life. Go deeper on "A Personal Day" with stories that tug at the heartstrings.

On "Bloody Sunday" go on some thrilling and murderous adventures, and get crazy on"A Day Out There" with some cooky sci-fi stories! Finally, let "The Last Day" sign you off with tales of life and death.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daniel Warner
• Release date: Mar 22, 2018

Daniel Warner

Daniel Warner is a freelance writer by day and a comic book writer by night, specializing in the genres of science fiction and contemporary romance. He has self-published two novels, launched a comic book series, and ghost written around two dozen books. Born and raised in Russia, Warner went to school in England, and is currently earning his BFA in Creative Writing in Orlando, Florida. You can find and follow him here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-warner-writes/ https://www.facebook.com/MasksCB/

Book preview

FLASHED OUT

A Flash Fiction Collection

by Daniel Warner

FLASHED OUT

Published by Daniel Warner at Smashwords

Copyright 2018 Daniel Warner

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold

or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite e-book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Valery, who gives me more inspiration than I know what to do with.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Warm-up Day

The Smallest Talk

Coming of Age

The One Where They Watched TV

After Lunch (First published at Jersey Devil Press)

The Bottle Day

The Whether-it-will-be-good-or-not Forecast

Awesome Possum

Dense

The Day Off

Steak and Eggs

The Key to Happiness

Speech Impediment

Playground Love

A Personal Day

My Mother

Lying in Bed

She Was Sitting by the Phone

The Better Half

Bloody Sunday

Best Laid Weekend Plans

The Get Away Driver

Hi, Jack

A Day Out There

A Girl Can Dream

Stellar

No Rest (First published at Scarlet Leaf Reviews)

Farewell

The Last Day

To Mr. Emerson

Femme Fatale

Margin of Error

About the Author

Introduction

Someone has told me once, that writing a book was the easiest thing in the world. And it is. You can bang these suckers out in a week, although, chances are, the result will be as eloquent and well put together as this sentence.

Nevertheless, I thought I’d take my chances. It sounded like a good challenge, and a fun thing to do, and it turned out to be both! I spent a week writing a couple of stories a day, and then another week editing and formatting them into this book. I like it a lot.

I hope you will find something that speaks to you in this book, and if not, just know that I did my best to appear to have done my best.

Lastly, I’d like to give some thanks.

Special thanks to Christopher Ramsey and Brett Pribble, who have introduced me to flash fiction, as well as Jesse Toler, John Faceto, and the rest of my writing group, who have helped me edit it. You guys are the best!

Thanks to Gianluca Bonomo and Kal Winter for designing the cover. And huge thanks to Nathan Bruckheimer for sharing some of his stories with me (Playground Love is for you)!

The Warm-up Day

The first day was more of a warm-up for me than for any of the characters in these stories. I took it easy, writing from the heart and coming up with four stories that made me feel good. I think they turned out pretty well and serve as a good start to this book.

Enjoy!

The Smallest Talk

Raindrops were falling upside down.

Jenny imagined the water was leaving the planet, going back into the clouds, so she could have the playground to herself to finish her adventure. Only the water wasn’t leaving. It was pouring down onto the rubber flooring, already forming puddles where the ground was uneven.

She had already ventured up the rocky wall, all the way to the top deck, which was supposed to be a mountain, kind of like those they had back home. She was too little to climb those, but her mother had taken her hiking once, and she loved that.

After the mountain came the clatter bridge. It stretched over lava, of course, and Jenny measured her every step not to swing it too much. Every cartoon and movie she’d ever seen demonstrated how unreliable these rope bridges could be. She jumped onto the safe platform at the end of it, and then went down the waves of the slide. She liked to think every mountain had a slide, so you could have fun on the way back down.

She had climbed the ladder then, and that’s how she ended up on the monkey bars, hanging upside down, watching her own reflection in a puddle. She had a slicker in her satchel, but there was no way of putting it on in this position. There were six more bars to go, but she was in no hurry. Back home, it always rained, so she found comfort in it.

Finally, she reached upwards with her hands and grabbed the bar, seeing the world at a more familiar angle. That’s when she saw the kid.

"Hey," she called, but the kid didn’t answer. He was hiding from the rain under the slide, and there was no one else around. He might have been shivering.

Jenny narrowed her eyes, full of determination – this was no longer just an obstacle course, this was a rescue mission! She adjusted her satchel, hanging by one hand, then quickly climbed to the end and jumped down. After crossing the playground, she dived under the slide.

"Hey, she said. I’m here to save you!"

The kid looked up at her, saying nothing. He wasn’t crying, but his lips were moving. And he was shaking, after all.

"Don’t cry, it’s just an adventure. I’m Jenny," she said.

"I’m Sam. I like your backpack."

Jenny frowned. It’s my satchel.

"Okay," the kid replied. He was a little younger, and of course couldn’t have known what equipment