Happy Weekend!
Bill Engleson (@billmelaterplea) flew the highest on the latest prompt and takes his twenty-third win!
You can find him at:
Check out his piece below and congratulate him on Twitter:
Congrats on your #SwiftFicFriday win @billmelaterplea! Check out his flash piece and show him some love #WritingCommunity
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Countdown To….
Lucas Snelgrove woke up one morning with only one thought: life had become a series of counting episodes.
He wondered how it had come to this.
He could remember the boy he once was, oblivious to time, to rules, to restraint.
The only thing that counted was having fun.
Swimming, for example.
He had been blessed growing up to have rivers, lakes, abandoned reservoirs, and the ocean in which to swim.
At some point in his middle years, with no easy access to outdoor waterways, he began doing laps at the community pool.
Counting laps.
What else could one do in a chlorinated tub but keep track of your turns?
Measuring swimming that way took all the fun out of being wet, of the gracefulness of swimming.
Perhaps that was the beginning.
Certainly of his depressing transformation into a fanatical counter of things.
And now, in his last quarter of time, he was fully immersed in tracking his every movement, every action.
He had a kismo to count his steps.
He was counting calories.
He was counting his daily blood pressure.
He was counting pills, parceling them out into little plastic containers.
He was, as he always had been, counting the hours.
He had always been an inveterate clock watcher. Over the years, those without watches would invariably ask him, “Lucas, you got the time?”
Of course, he had the time.
Now though, time was running short.
That morning the epiphany was complete.
It was time to be released, to count on nothing but the pleasures to be had in freedom from time’s noose.
There was only the final countdown and that would take care of itself.
Important Note: This was the last prompt for 2022. Adjusting to parenthood is no joke, so we’ll be back next year! Until then, happy holidays!
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