Fast & Short is a flash fiction collaboration between eight Literate Ape writers. Each was tasked with authoring one piece of flash fiction that would be combined to create a single short story. The writers’ flash fiction needed to serve two purposes: 1. Stand alone as a unique piece of flash fiction and 2. Serve as a vehicle for building a larger story and driving that story forward. Over the next two weeks, Literate Ape will publish all eight flash fiction stories individually with a link to the growing compilation. We hope you enjoy this literary experiment.
—DH2 , co-editors

By Joe Janes

HOPE SAT QUIETLY. She noticed she had done that thing again. Where she disappears in plain sight. Her mind wondering how she got there. There was a champagne glass in her hand.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Marriott-Toledo Ballroom. Clear the dance floor! It is time for the bride and groom to have their first dance as Mr. and Mrs. Phillip C. Love,” belted out Ned, the band leader.

Everyone clapped politely. Phil and Hope took to the dance floor and slow danced to what they said was their favorite song, “Crystal Blue Persuasion” by Tommy James. Hope liked the song, but had no idea what it was about. Phil hated to dance and felt this was the only song he could bear to rhythmically sway to. They didn’t speak. To an outside eye, it might have looked like two people in love nervously looking at each other during their first of a lifetime of dances. In truth, they had nothing to talk about. Everything in Hope’s mind sounded dumb. “Did you like the wedding? How’s your champagne? Did you try the babaganoush? Isn’t it weird we have babaganoush?”

The song ended. Phil stepped back from his newly minted  bride and bowed slightly.The cover band kicked into Huey Lewis and the News’s “The Heart of Rock and Roll” when there was suddenly a loud wrenching sound from above. Hope looked up and the last thing she saw was the glass chandelier rapidly heading towards her face.