At last! A piece that recognizes the TRUE colour of Christmas! [Come on… what do you find in the toe of your stocking every year?]
This flash fiction is the first in this series by the brilliant writer/illustrator Lee Edward Fodi.
creative commons photo by Fir0002/Flagstaffotos
Orange
Wrapping a finger around a curl of her carrot-top hair, Dahlia cast a gaze at the spectacular evening sky. It seemed as if it was on fire, streaked with brilliant cadmium and thin ochre clouds.
She trudged down the steps of the porch, its tangerine paint long since blistered away by the relentless sun. Her eyes lingered upon the long-expired copper-coloured fields as they glowed in the last of the day’s fiery light. She ambled past the row of drooping peach trees; the setting sun made their dry branches gleam like burning brands.
At last she came to the river. It had dwindled to a trickle now, but what was left of it shone like a streak of lava. Maybe this is what death is, Dahlia thought. At the very end, just before it erupts into a fiery inferno, it is a beautiful vista, so deceivingly bursting and blooming with the colour of life.
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Lee Edward Fodi is an author, illustrator, and educator. Which is a fancy way of saying he’s a daydreaming expert. You can find him at leefodi.com and on twitter @LeeFodi.
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For the month of December, my goal is to post a piece of festive flash fiction here to the blog every day. Twenty-five stories, each 250 words or fewer — a little fictional festivity to brighten the darkest month of the year. For readers, I offer these stories as a moment of peace within a hectic month of busy. And as you can see with this entry, I’m happily featuring flash fiction other writers have offered to share!
More soon…
~kc