Noire Notes V
On Flash Fiction & The Art Of Storytelling
Author’s Note: This piece was inspired by prompts given during last week’s Flash-Style Flash Fiction Battle (created by Andrew Robert Colom). Read more about it here if you’re interested.
Writing Prompt 1 (Courtesy of Black) – In The 80s, United States, Drug Busts
The sun is shining, Rene & Angela’s “I’ll Be Good” is on the boombox blasting and everybody is by the pool dancing.
This is the party you have when you’re on the top of the world. A bit extravagant for a girl’s sweet 16th birthday but you can’t think about such things when it comes to celebrating the life of your child.
Then the sirens come, warrants are flashed around and everybody is told to “get on the ground”. This is what happens when your product causes the death of a famous college basketball player. You always thought that they would never come to get you. That you were too far removed from the streets to be found guilty for your misdeeds.
Everybody is looking at you but there is only one pair of eyes that matter: your daughter’s. You see them mature in that moment, you see that last bit of innocence in her wilt away and die, you see her realize that all the rumors she heard about you were true. Her darling mother now put in the custody of those donned head-to-toe in black and blue.
Writing Prompt 2 (Courtesy Of Andrew Robert Colom) – Farm, Ice Cold Conditions, Betrayal Over Love
Your breath shows as you hold on to the torchlight. Surrounded by hay and manure, you try to figure out your next move. Do you run the risk of setting off the alarm by hot-wiring the car outside or do you take your chances with this inclement weather as you wipe the snow off your shoes?
First, you have to get out of these cuffs. Your hands shiver as you jiggle the keys that you stole from the guard. You think of how you’re meant to be the opposite of cold right now, soaking in the rays of the Egyptian sun, traveling with the man you once considered the love of your life.
Then you remember his signature on the affidavit. The shock of betrayal and rage that coursed through your veins as you read each sentence alternate between scathing veracity and cunning deceit. You called him out on it and he said that it was “for the sake of our daughter” but you’re still not sure. Are you really the ‘monster’ that people whisper about behind your back or is he just a coward hoping to profit off of your court-mandated absence?
You break free of your restraints and opt to brave the elements, running down the white-encrusted hills to get answers in Alexandria.
Writing Prompt 3 (Courtesy Of Scott W Colom) – Michael Jordan, Alexandria, Falling Out Of Love
“And Alexander wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer”. This is the line that first comes to mind as you wake up in the city named after him. But what are the reasons for your tears?
Is it for throwing the woman that you were about to marry to the judicial wolves looking for their next scapegoat? Is it for the daughter you left behind, determined to follow in her mother’s footsteps? Or is it for the ominous feeling that this might just be the last sunrise you will ever see?
You wonder how it would happen? Would it be an incidence of poisoning like the Pharaohs who once ruled this land or would it be in a hail of gunfire like the people who died before this country’s transfer of power?
The red “23” Bulls jersey sticks to your back as you bake in the desert heat and briefly reminisce about the soft touch of the person that lovingly rubbed the back of your head. Instead, the sensation of blue steel suddenly hits the nape of your neck. You look up, believing at first that what you are seeing is a mirage, until you recognize the face of the woman in the mirror – trying her best not to betray her stony facade.
Writing Prompt 4 (Courtesy Of DWC) – Halloween, Survival, Plebiscite
“At the dawn of the millennium, the nation collapsed…800,00 students boycotted school and juvenile crime rates soared. Adults had lost all confidence, and now fearing the youth, they eventually passed the Millennium Educational Reform Act AKA The BR Act.” – Battle Royale (2000)
She unwraps her Reese’s chocolate bar and some Lindt truffles, leftovers from Halloween, and pops in a bootleg DVD of Battle Royale. The film was recommended by her boyfriend along with Ju-On: The Grudge and Hideo Kanata’s The Ring.
She wasn’t a fan of ghost stories so she decided to watch a movie about teenage murder instead. The casual nature in which she saw friends and lovers turn on each other eerily mirrored real life. Her father tried to warn her but she felt that she had something to prove.
It’s funny. How time changes things. One second, her mother was all over the news, considered the epitome of everything that was wrong with the country. The next, she’s getting shout-outs from rappers on hit songs and Hollywood producers want to turn her life story into a movie.
There are a couple of contracts sitting underneath her opened candy wrappers and she doesn’t know what to do with them. The last time she heard from either of her parents was when her dad said that he was going to build a new life in Alexandria. Now he, along with her mother, haunt her memories like the ghosts on the printed out DVD covers.
She hears a knock on the door, opens it and sees a phantasm come back to life: a woman dressed in a puffy leather jacket, aviator shades and stiletto high heels. The cigarette light acting as a dim beacon in the darkness.
Further Reading
[1] Ashe, Grandaddy Sweet, Art On My Mind
[2] Magnetic, I Am What I Am, Soulja World News
[3] Prince Kudu’Ra, Monty’s Revenge, Dispatches From New Dithyrambia
Further Watching
[1] Griselda (2024)
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I wanna read more from prompt 2! That was appropriately bracing, chilling, and thrilling!
This was cold brother