{"id":1353,"date":"2008-08-25T11:20:05","date_gmt":"2008-08-25T11:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1353"},"modified":"2008-08-25T11:20:05","modified_gmt":"2008-08-25T11:20:05","slug":"new-flash-fiction-by-brian-george","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/new-flash-fiction-by-brian-george\/","title":{"rendered":"New flash fiction by Brian George"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta http-equiv=\"CONTENT-TYPE\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><title><\/title><meta name=\"GENERATOR\" content=\"OpenOffice.org 2.0  (Linux)\"><meta name=\"CREATED\" content=\"16010101;0\"><meta name=\"CHANGED\" content=\"16010101;0\"><\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t<!--\n\t\t@page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in }\n\t\tP { margin-bottom: 0.08in }\n\t-->\n\t<\/style>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: bold; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">SHE<br \/>\nPLAYED ME LIKE A STEEL GUITAR<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\"><br \/><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">Winter<br \/>\ntrees scrape the cracked sky. Clouds like old bruises mass in the<br \/>\nlate afternoon. I walk on. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">She<br \/>\nplayed me like a steel guitar, coaxing out sweet sliding sounds at<br \/>\nwill, just for the fun of it, for her own amusement. The rough pads<br \/>\nof her guitarist\u2019s fingers snagged on my skin, set up a friction.<br \/>\nWe fought often, drawn back again and again, always with her in<br \/>\ncontrol, cool, scoring the movement in ways I didn\u2019t understand. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">In<br \/>\nthe street there are houses boarded, steel shutters in place of<br \/>\ndoors, pebbledash rendering streaked with black. &nbsp;Bin bags spew<br \/>\nonto front lawns. A dog eyes me, contemptuous, rasps a bark, runs<br \/>\noff. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font size=\"2\">\u2018<\/font><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">Let\u2019s<br \/>\ngo away together,\u2019 she\u2019d said. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font size=\"2\">\u2018<\/font><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">Where?\u2019<br \/>\n<\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font size=\"2\">\u2018<\/font><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">Does<br \/>\nit matter? Got to move on. Find the new.\u2019 <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">So<br \/>\nwe went. She knew places, people. They smiled at her, looked away<br \/>\nfrom me. She smiled at me, told me lies, drew out another tune. I<br \/>\ndanced to it. The crowd applauded. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">The<br \/>\ncrescents, the walks, the closes, all spiral away from me. I stop in<br \/>\nthe middle of the estate. A gang of boys look me up and down, laugh,<br \/>\nswagger on, hands in pockets. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font size=\"2\">\u2018<\/font><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">We\u2019re<br \/>\nso good together,\u2019 she\u2019d said. \u2018We\u2019ve come so far.\u2019 <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font size=\"2\">\u2018<\/font><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">Do<br \/>\nyou think so?\u2019 <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font size=\"2\">\u2018<\/font><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">Without<br \/>\nyou I\u2019m dross.\u2019 <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">I<br \/>\nbelieved her. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">Wind<br \/>\nwhips round the corners of this estate. Mudded slush soaks through my<br \/>\nboots. More dogs and boys are circling round me, ready to move in for<br \/>\nthe kill. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">I<br \/>\nheard the sound of a country and western ballad float on the breeze,<br \/>\nbright and crushingly sad all at once. She said something into the<br \/>\nwind as she waved. Her smile was bright. I thought she was saying<br \/>\ngood luck, but she was saying goodbye. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">The<br \/>\nclouds close in.<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font size=\"2\"><br \/><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">* <\/font><meta http-equiv=\"CONTENT-TYPE\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><title><\/title><meta name=\"GENERATOR\" content=\"OpenOffice.org 2.0  (Linux)\"><meta name=\"CREATED\" content=\"16010101;0\"><meta name=\"CHANGED\" content=\"16010101;0\"><\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t<!--\n\t\t@page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in }\n\t\tP { margin-bottom: 0.08in }\n\t--><\/style>\n<p><font style=\"font-size: 11pt;\" size=\"2\">Brian George lives<br \/>\nin Pontypool, south Wales. Fiction in various magazines. One collection published <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Walking the labyrinth<\/span> (Stonebridge, 2005). Member of Vanessa Gebbie&#39;s online forum the Fiction Workhouse.<\/font><font size=\"2\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SHE PLAYED ME LIKE A STEEL GUITAR Winter trees scrape the cracked sky. Clouds like old bruises mass in the late afternoon. I walk on. She played me like a steel guitar, coaxing out sweet sliding sounds at will, just for the fun of it, for her own amusement. The rough pads of her guitarist\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}