{"id":1364,"date":"2008-09-03T15:57:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-03T15:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1364"},"modified":"2008-09-03T15:57:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-03T15:57:00","slug":"this-is-flash-fiction-and-possibly-an-anagram-by-sarah-hilary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/this-is-flash-fiction-and-possibly-an-anagram-by-sarah-hilary\/","title":{"rendered":"This is FLASH fiction – and possibly an anagram – by Sarah Hilary"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a long illness, quietly at home<\/span>
 <\/span>

First, I want to show you his room.<\/span>
 <\/span>
Lemon walls, a bit greasy just there above the bed. And yes I know. Should\u2019ve washed his hair more often. He hated me to touch him though, especially towards the end: \u2018You\u2019re not my ruddy wife!\u2019<\/span>

Foreign embassy. Listen to them talk. All about his honourable service. Surely, I think, someone else knew the truth. How am I all alone? Formica, the bedside cabinet. Look at the tea-cup rings, Vaseline and whatnot.<\/span>
 <\/span>
A litter of tissues. Search them for lipstick insignia? Haven't the heart now, not now. Funny how the light in here makes everything flatter than it really is. Linoleum floor; I wanted Axminster but he wouldn\u2019t budge. \u2018Axminster? Soon you\u2019ll have us with chintz bloody curtains.\u2019<\/span>
 <\/span>
How about a rug, I said, and of course he made a comment about my hair. For a while I thought of leaving him. Longed to, in fact. Asked at work about relocating. Sunnier climes?<\/span>
 <\/span>
\u2018Ha ha! Bugger off then.\u2019 Ferocious sod had his pride. <\/span>

Look. <\/span>

At the shape of his head in the pillows. Still warm. Half a glass of water with his teeth in it. French letter. Library book. Andrew\u2019s Liver Salts. Spectacles, horn-rimmed. Handkerchief, spotty. <\/span>

For what it\u2019s worth, I loved him. Lonely sort of love. Anyone asks, I wouldn\u2019t recommend it. See what it\u2019s done to me. Hitting the ditch from the pillows where his head lay, opening the windows to air a room where I was never welcome, not even when I brought breakfast and the post.<\/span>

\u2018Fucking bills!\u2019<\/span>

Language, I\u2019d say.<\/span>

\u2018And you can piss off!\u2019<\/span>

\u2018Shall I turn back the bed?\u2019<\/span>

He\u2019d look at me then, all sunken chest and self-reproach, and I\u2019d pat his hand and pour the tea and two cups later he\u2019d be fine.<\/span>



* Sarah Hilary won the Fish Historical-Crime Contest and has two stories in the Fish anthology 2008. She was a runner-up in the Biscuit Short Story Contest 2008. www.sarah-crawl-space.blogspot.com\/<\/a>
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After a long illness, quietly at home First, I want to show you his room. Lemon walls, a bit greasy just there above the bed. And yes I know. Should\u2019ve washed his hair more often. He hated me to touch him though, especially towards the end: \u2018You\u2019re not my ruddy wife!\u2019Foreign embassy. Listen to them talk. All […]<\/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-1364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364","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=1364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}