Thimbles Flash Fic Week 17

Prompt: fanficflashfic. blogspot 2013/05/week-17-fanficflashfic. html#comment-form (a pic of a clothesline of a variety of women's underwear)

I did two this week :)


1

Crazy Mr. Wick is wheeled out, horizontally, with a sheet covering him from head to toe.

He was never crazy.

There's a small crowd gathered on the corner. They whisper, frown, but their eyes are dry as some of them bounce babies on their hips while others cross their arms.

He used to stare out his kitchen window. Gave the neighborhood kids the heebie-jeebies. They egged his house a few times, made up rhyming songs that'd guarantee a slice of soap on the tongue.

An ambulance attendant slams shut the door to his rig.

He missed her for too many years. Once a month he hung her garments, her finest dresses, her delicates, on a rope line. They froze in the winter and billowed in the spring. He fluffed her pillow each night. He stared out his kitchen window.

The vehicle drives off, lights unlit, and the crowd disperses as quickly as it formed.

The girl who lives next door enters Mr. Wick's home. She knows death by broken heart when she sees it even though she's never actually seen it before. In his yard, she removes each piece of laundry, folds it nicely, then puts it away for him.


2

The blades of grass are so high and dry they make her thighs itch. She flicks away an ant, squints at the clothesline that's a hundred feet away. She's smiling but confused by Neighbor Boy's…project? He hung them with lots of vigor, she thinks. She's hoping they're not his, but really, you never know.

He's cradling a camera – this old thing that looks like her grandpa's. He's on his knees then his feet then atop a ladder. He glances over, smirks. He goes back to his photo-taking.

She shades her eyes from the afternoon sun. In her head, and probably her heart, she strikes up a conversation, but Neighbor Boy is, like, way older. No way Dad would go for it and NB would probably pat her head. Call her jailbait.

She's sixteen, though. He's home from college. It's not that bad.

"They're not mine," he says, laughing. She shrugs, though her skin just went hot.

He waves her over.

She ignites.

"You wouldn't believe the looks I got in Target." He waits; she mashes her lips together. "It's for school. It's about women and their differences and how beautiful they all are."

She thinks she'll marry NB one day.