HELLO. Welcome to Day 3. How’s the flash writing going? I’m having a hot flash right now, so everything seems to be right on sched.
I think of today’s prompt as a kind of ghost story. Probably because I think of a lot of things as ghost stories — there’s more than one way to ghost. No particular reading or excerpt tied to Day 3, though “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid (autobiographical flash fiction), and “Ghost Story” by Maggie Smith (flash nonfiction) both come to mind. As they often do.
Just now, while I was typing this, the hardwood floor creaked. Our pre-war building stretched, then settled. The dog is splayed over me, her pig belly resting heavy on top of my arms while I type. The boiler’s kicking on and the heat pipe in the corner by the window is tapping politely. Soon it will break out in an operatic clang. None of this is haunty ghosty. It’s just atmosphere.
OKAY, LET’S GET GOING.
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