{"id":1643,"date":"2009-03-27T12:27:12","date_gmt":"2009-03-27T12:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1643"},"modified":"2009-03-27T12:27:12","modified_gmt":"2009-03-27T12:27:12","slug":"some-flash-fiction-for-a-friday-by-vanessa-gebbie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/some-flash-fiction-for-a-friday-by-vanessa-gebbie\/","title":{"rendered":"Some flash fiction for a Friday by Vanessa Gebbie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beer, wallet<\/span>


You left your wallet. I will ring you, let you know. And no, I won\u2019t do anything silly with the cards. I won\u2019t even look for the photo of me you used to keep in the side pocket. I expect it\u2019s gone. I need a drink. I expect I\u2019ll go to the fridge, get one of your beers. <\/span>

Maybe not.<\/span>

You know, I remember the first time I knew I loved you. And the first time you knew it too. We were in a car, a few others. Can\u2019t remember who, now, there was just you, to my right, your thigh, some tape playing, your leg jigging. I wanted to put my hand on your thigh, Feel you. Just that.<\/span>

I needed cash. You pulled up at this cash point you knew. Empty street, then me on the pavement with my card, the door open. The music playing. I put my card in the machine, waited, listened to the music. If I turned round, I\u2019d see the car. You. The others. Laughing. The door open, my place empty.<\/span>

Pin number, it said. I tapped. 2648. <\/span>
Nothing. I tapped again, 4826.<\/span>
Nothing.<\/span>
I knew those were the right numbers. The last two made a year that meant something. 2684. Nothing.<\/span>

You turned off the music. My breathing was fast. A footstep. A hand on my shoulder.<\/span>

\u201cJen? Problems?\u201d<\/span>

I turned. I couldn\u2019t look up. There was a thread pulled on your jumper.<\/span>

\u201cI forgot my number,\u201d I said. Then your hand under my chin, and you, bending down, making me look at you. The streetlight shone in my eyes, blinding me. <\/span>

You took out your wallet. Same one. \u201cSilly,\u201d you said. Your voice, shaking.<\/span>


* Vanessa Gebbie writes poetry and prose, and runs an online forum called Fiction Workhose \u2013 you can find out more about her work here <\/span>www.vanessagebbie.com<\/a> + <\/span>www.vanessagebbiesnews.blogspot.com<\/a>

<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beer, walletYou left your wallet. I will ring you, let you know. And no, I won\u2019t do anything silly with the cards. I won\u2019t even look for the photo of me you used to keep in the side pocket. I expect it\u2019s gone. I need a drink. I expect I\u2019ll go to the fridge, get […]<\/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-1643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643","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=1643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}