Ravens' View

This time, the challenge for Flash Fiction Friday was a location and a thing. Randomly chosen from two lists. I ended up with 'a quiet suburb', and 'animal crackers'. My word count was 997,  just under the 1000 limit.

Just Animal Crackers

Patrick clutched his chest and waited for the pain to subside.

“Calm thoughts,” he said. “Breath in . . . and out.” Nothing serious, in his opinion, probably heartburn. Still, these twinges, plus flat feet and a wonky hip, had persuaded him to retire after a career as a security guard. At least he could sleep in, to noon if he wanted. Easily done here, in his home on a quiet suburban street. Too quiet. The parents drove to the city for work, and the kids were all in school or day care. His wife had died a decade ago, and he had no hobbies, so he’d spent several years of his retirement being both alone and lonely.

 This week's Flash Fiction Friday challenge was based on a random photo. Mine was from PapaPiper, on Flickr.  This is a very warm and restful photo, evoking in me feelings of beauty and peace and of  contentment, of celebrating the end of a year and thinking ahead to Spring. So, of  course, I had to change it up a bit.  I had fun with this idea. This could be a longer piece, maybe even a novel.

Limit was 1000 words, I'm about 950. 

This is my first Flash Fiction in a while, and my first to this new prompt site - my site! 

The prompt was a song title - any random one from Spotify, Google Play - wherever. I got Slow Caboose, a leisurely jazz tune form the 50's, by Sax Mallard and his orchestra. Right away I thought of it as a kid's name, somebody very laidback, and the consequences of that. This took me way longer than it used to, as I'm both out of practice and pickier than I used to be. It was fun to create again.

We had 2000 words for this one, but I only used about 1300.