Flash fiction

Flash fiction is a little known literary genre. Its limited length (fewer than 500 words) makes a piece a hybrid of prose and poetry.

Since it offers the best of both worlds, but is also subject to restrictions from either, many authors find flash fiction difficult to write.

Hey - A Love Song

Hey was a Texas Chinese brothel owner with a soft spot for the graces; the kind of man who would open doors and keep them open, smiling, offering tea as you passed him, while abbreviated bows argued his perpetual submission. There were few doubts in his mind and none had to do with the graces. Hey was firm, correct and unyielding, opened doors and offered tea as days progressed.

Once a year Hey invested a lay and a blowjob in the renting of a huge van and drove his staff to the Corpus Christi coast. Had them touch the water while he quoted songs from his old land's ancient past: Tu Fu, Wang Wei; dark night and town impenetrably dead, river rushing by the pink of spring, sad man alone. They'd sigh, ask for more while they sat in the sand and listened to the surf and watched the ochre rise from the horizon, then orange streaks dilute to purple. The girls understood that Hey opened more than doors. And the clientele found the ochre resting in their eyes; then orange, purple later.

The last time Hey drove to the coast he kissed his girls as they boarded the van. Looked them in the eye for a brittle instant. Bowed even for them.

He took in a full tank of gas when he had only an hour left to drive. They asked him why but Hey bowed and wouldn't say. When they reached the coast the girls stood up and looked at the water. Pointed. Hey felt hands on his shoulders and graceful verse envelop his few doubts. Dark night. River rushing. Sad man.

When the van's wheels sank in the sand the girls asked why but Hey kept silent. He planked the gas and kept going and drove through the last door he would ever open. The girls sat down and held hands and understood that it takes more than an ocean to stop a man like Hey.

* * *

Winner of the
2004 Carolyn A. Clark
Flash Fiction Prize