Three Flash Fictions

Eliza Scudder 

Friendship Bracelets

Last night I dreamed I was in a place full of people making things. Casey and his friend were working on some sort of plastic invention. I was covered in water so they told me to move away so I didn’t ruin their invention. I had to change clothes to take a group picture with all the girls in our high school. I told Casey I loved him but he didn’t say it back. 

     In part of my dream, I was looking through a bunch of antique saucers with cartoon characters on them. There were a lot of Winnie the Pooh saucers and some with snowmen on them.  

     In another part of my dream, I went on a date with a weird guy I didn’t like and gave him a knockoff Apple Watch. Casey knew I went on a date. I wanted to be in a relationship with Casey, but I didn’t know if he liked me back. It seemed he only wanted to work on his inventions. 

     I remember freshman year of high school, Casey asked me what I thought he should be when he grew up and I said he should be an inventor. 

     I tried to climb on him once in seventh grade. I didn’t know who he was, but I wanted to climb on him. 

     I kept saying, “My dad thinks the military is bad,” and trying to climb on Casey.

     The next day in the locker room, a girl asked me if I wanted to be a laundry woman. I told her I thought Spray ‘n’ Wash was hot.

Mall Cop

Junior year of high school, my chemistry teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I said I wanted to be a mall cop. 

     One day he asked me to play two truths and a lie. My two truths and a lie were that I like eating frozen corn, I like eating frozen peas, and my parents have dead bodies in their freezer. 

     I really wanted to drop out of high school, run away, and become a professional mermaid. 

     One day a student in my chemistry class said the teacher wanted me to call him coach. I said, “Hey coach.” 

     He said, “Hey Eliza.”

     I said, “Hey is for horses.” 

     One time I told the teacher I wanted to put my legs over his shoulders. I didn’t understand the meaning of what I was saying. 

     Senior year of high school my dad and my older sister were at a football game. I wasn’t there. I think I was at work. 

     Casey came over to talk to them. My dad said, “You’re one of the art kids.” Casey laughed and said he had received a full scholarship to a competitive college. 

     My dad said, “When I was your age, I was playin’ ball and showin’ people how it’s done.” 

     Casey didn’t take my dad seriously. My dad didn’t have a job. 

     My older sister told Casey they were in the same league because she received a partial scholarship to attend college.

     Casey said he was trying to be in my league. 

     Around that time, my family started acting like I was “pretentious” for wanting to study art. I had wanted to be an artist since I was a kid, and I didn’t see how making art could harm anyone. 

     I had a job at a frozen yogurt place, and I worked at a children’s art studio once a week. My dad and my older sister were mad at me for having jobs because they thought it made them look bad. I didn’t understand why they couldn’t get jobs. 

Staying Out of Underground Tunnels

I did another hypnosis session yesterday. I saw a bridge made of ice over a stream. There were donuts frozen inside the ice bridge. 

    I walked across it and saw Casey on the other side, sitting next to the opening of an underground tunnel. I sat on his lap, and he touched my stomach and told me I could have a baby. 

    He was going to guide me through the underground tunnel, but he wanted me to go with someone else. He wanted me to go with someone strong enough to carry me through the tunnel. 

    He repositioned my body to give me better posture and told me what clothes to wear so no one would ever be mean to me. 

    He was about to leave when someone else appeared, someone who could carry me through the tunnel, but then the hypnotist told me to walk back across the bridge to the other side of the stream. 

    She told me to imagine a new bridge, made of something other than donuts and ice. I saw myself weaving a bridge, and I walked across it with a friend. 

    The bridge turned gradually into wood and became more stable. The underground tunnel was still on the other side, but my friend and I walked past it, like we had no intention of entering it. 

     I found a peace sign made of clay, and I molded it into a heart with my hands. The heart shrunk down into a piece of hard candy, which, when I ate it, grew into a heart-shaped peace sign that took up all the space in my shoulders. 

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