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 MT Cozzola

“WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU?” asked the funnel of incense as it materialized into a small-boned woman in a red Chanel suit.

“For real?” I gasped. “Like three wishes real? Or like I Dream of Jeannie real, where you move in and there are unlimited wishes, but also possible awkwardness? Not that you would make it awkward. I can tell, you wouldn’t glare about milk. It’s not like I asked her to bag the milk, she doesn’t even like milk. She needs to stop babying me.”

“Is that your wish?”

“How many do I get?”

“Three,” the genie said, as Maggie abandoned a mustard packet and sat adoringly at her stilettoed feet. “Large or small, they will be granted.”

“I could end the pandemic?”

“If you wish. Though there would be other pandemics.”

“I could wish for a better universal response to pandemics.”

“Now you’re catching on.”

“Don’t wish for a box of Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios, but twenty—or no, I wish for a hundred boxes.”

Poof. Before me were three large cartons. “That counted?”

“It did.”

“Dumb! Dumb wish. What if Sarah finds out I had three wishes and I used one on cereal?”

“Must you tell her?”

“What does our love mean if I don’t tell her? But I could finesse it. I could say you gave me two wishes. She’ll never know.”