Fear.
FlashNano 2019, Day 9
“Are you there?”
“Yes, sorry, it’s late. What’s up?”
“I’m scared.”
“Scared? Why? What’s wrong?”
“Haven’t you seen?”
“See what?”
“The election. Today, here.”
“Sorry, I completely forgot. It’s not a big piece of news over here.”
“It will be tomorrow. It’s… I cannot bring myself to saying it. Wait.”
“What…? Hey, darling? Can you…?”
“I just texted you.”
“Okay, wait… Oh dear. Damn.”
“See why I’m scared now?”
“Yes, but… But look, they haven’t won, okay? They’re there, but that’s all.”
“Don’t minimize it. I’m scared. I’m terribly scared.”
“I know, I know. I wasn’t trying to minimize it, I was trying to…”
“I know. Sorry. Sorry, it’s only that… I don’t know. I can’t explain how I feel. I wish you were here, with me.”
“I’ll take a plane tomorrow. No, I’ll check if I can fly tonight.”
“They… they hate us. People like us. Just… just because, do you understand? Because we’re different, because we’re not like them, we don’t… we don’t comply. I hate them, and I hate them for making me hating them.”
“Oh dear. Okay, this is what we’re gonna do: I’m flying as soon as I can. I’m gonna put some things in a case and call a cab, and I’ll be there as soon as I can. I’ll get an email to my office saying it’s an urgent matter over there. And you’ll come back here with me. Get your passport ready.”
“But… but it’s…”
“You’re coming with me, okay? And you stay here as long as you need. You’ll go back when you want, or when you can.”
“And what about… What about the others?”
“The others?”
“The other people. Everybody else here. I’ll be running away… That’s wrong.”
“Look, your country just voted stupidly. Scaringly stupid. You don’t feel comfortable, you come with me. And yes, I know we’re privileged, we can afford it, and all that. And not everybody can. But you need it right now, and I’ll help you as much as I can. You first, darling. You cannot help your people, however you want to do that, if you cannot function.”
“Do you love me?”
“I do. More than anything in the world. That’s why I’m coming to you.”
This is my flash for Day 9 of FlashNano 2019, (idea by Nancy Stohlman). The prompt for today was “Write a story that happens over the telephone.” I was late with this prompt, and my original idea was quite different, but as it turns out, we’ve just had a terrible election here in Spain. I was feeling angry and frustrated, and then I decided to try and express my feelings in my story, as if I was a real writer. And here it is.
