The Cereal Wish | Part 7
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 Brett Dworski
“THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS—SPYING ON ME AGAIN,” I said.
“Who’s spying on you?” Sarah asked.
Ignoring her, I hustled to the freezer and grabbed the Swedish meatballs. Not thirty seconds later I was chucking the beef spheres at the drones out the window like a man possessed.
“Are you fucking crazy?” Sarah asked. “That’s our dinner for the next week!”
I didn’t care. I was in the zone. I always wondered when my two years of junior-varsity baseball would pay off, and that time was now. I was blazing guns… meatball after meatball, chuck after chuck. I imagined I was Sandy Koufax in the ’65 World Series—obviously not the game he bailed because of Hanukkah… or was it Passover?—striking out batter after batter.
Oh yeah, baby. You eat those meatballs, you fucking drones! Eat them! Eat them good!, I thought.
The drones fell to the ground and exploded on impact. I jumped around the apartment and raised my arms like Rocky Balboa atop the Philly Art Museum.
This was the most alive I’d felt in years. More than when I met Sarah. More than when we adopted Maggie. More than when I received the negative herpes test in college.
“Hey!”
I heard Sarah’s voice and was instantly back in the kitchen. The frozen milk was thawing. Maggie was barking at the drones outside the window.
“Huh?” I said.
I opened the freezer. The Swedish meatballs were there.
“You all right?” Sarah asked. “Thought I lost you for a sec. Who’s spying on who?”