She squirmed in her chair at the meeting. Something about a new filing system. A co-worker glared at her. She stopped tapping her pencil, immediately beginning to bounce her leg. Could she leave? This stupid meeting had been planned for a month.
No. She’d lose her job.
Thoughts of the milk carton facing the wrong way plagued her. The front, with the cartoon cow on it, was turned toward the orange juice. She had seen it from the front door just as her son opened the fridge for breakfast.
“Excuse me,” she grabbed her bag and left the office.
* This was a challenge I created for myself (99 words – no more, no less) from micro fiction I wrote on Twitter. Just thought it needed more space to breathe. Here’s the tweet:
“She squirmed in her chair. Something about a new filing system. Thoughts of the milk carton facing sideways in the fridge plagued her.”
The #FP (Friday Phrases) prompt was “obsession”.
Lemon Shark Reef 
Love this! Flash fiction is such a difficult task but it can be so powerful!
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Aw, thanks. 💖
Agreed. Flash (especially with a specific word count) can be difficult but I love a challenge. It can also pack a punch in a few words. Love when that happens. Thanks for reading.
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Oooohh…. I need to see where this goes!!! 🙂 ❤
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Oh, geez. I extend a tweet to a flash… Now you want more?! 😝 Let me see where this one goes. I still have Warrior Queen bugging me to tell her tale. ❤️
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Lol! Too late!! You’ve developed a groupie! Now I’m always going to be hanging out at your book signings asking for your autograph. No rush!! I’ll just pitch my tent here and wait. 😂❤ Just bring me a cup of coffee every day as you come and go. 😉
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Ooh! A groupie! 😍 Awesome.
A latte? A double mocha espresso? You name it. You got it. (Though I think it’s probable that the signing will be the other way ’round.) ❤️ #mast
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❤ #mast
#superscrivener #wonderfulwordsmith
#awesomeauthoress
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OCD must be such an affliction. You have captured the driving force and angst well in this piece. I do think it works well as flash, but does raise some questions for expansion as well. Well done!
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Thanks, Norah. 💛 It’s short but I wanted to challenge myself to keep the micro as short as possible while still giving some more detail about her. So glad I captured the angst here.
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Great setup, details (cartoon cow!), and then leaves the reader with the agony of knowing we all have character traits that affect our lives — and some are more serious than others.
Eric’s right — more of this character, please! I already like her. 🙂
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Thanks. 💙 Okay, clearly this character needs even more room. I have the kid from Joint Pain wanting his story told but I’ll see what this woman has to say… 😜
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I love the way a phrase or idea can eat away at you, even when you think you’ve ‘finished’ something – like the tweet used to create this flash.
Love the idea of giving it room to breathe. It’s a perfect flash in 99 words but as a reader I’m expanding it to a whole character, sad or funny life. Who is she?!
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I wasn’t sure if you were talking about the micro fiction or the milk carton at first. !!!
I do love when something you’ve written sticks with you. I’ve had more and more characters lately who are begging to be written about in more depth. 💖 That is making me happy!
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Subconscious shift into fridge related metaphors! So cool!
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Hahaha! 😂
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Reply again button required or comment edit.. Pushed to ‘send’ before doing back flips on your behalf in the Reef. Follow the characters! Yours are always intriguing 😎🙀😈
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Don’t get me started! I have a whole post on comment-editing. And thank you. This means so much. 💖
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I love that image of the cow nuzzling up to the orange juice – of course she’d have to leave the meeting to get that one sorted out! Very clever Flash and just the right length.
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Of course she did! Thank you! (Yes, the cow against the juice is just no good…no good at all.) I appreciate your comment about the length. I liked the challenge and felt it told her story. I also love that some want to see more of this character but I like it in 99 words, too.
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Cripes…OCD…my chest tightened reading this. Love it… ❤
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My chest tightned writing it! ❤️ Thanks, Sherri.
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Deep breaths… ❤
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