Flash Fiction Blogfest time

I found out about this Blog-fest very late, because I happened to drop in on a Ninja who was participating. Luckily, I was up to the challenge on very little notice too! 😉

1. Entries must begin with the two words: Lightning flashed.

2. Entries must be 300 words or less and be in prose. I’m not versed enough in poetry verse to judge it properly.

3. Entries must be posted on your blog between May 21 – 23.

Lighting flashed against the horizon, a tiny fork of it in the flat distance. Robert noticed it out of the window at once, and hope leapt inside his chest. With lightning, there was rain!

By the time he’d run downstairs, the hope was quietly taunting and jeering at him. There was more lightning, and a faint rumble of thunder, and a fresh breeze blowing, but the only arcs were from that one spot in the sky. How far away was the thunder – and the water? He could wait for it – but what if the storm was moving in a different direction?

His drive all used up, Robert lay in the dust, face up, and dreamed of the patter of water droplids on his eyelids.

When the water actually came, it was in a torrenting splash, and hope fought briefly with alarm. In a downpour that heavy, would there be flooding? Would the crop be washed away, or the farmhouse?

Then the splash eased away, and he realized that his pant legs were completely dry. Robert sat up, rubbed his eyes, and saw Mary holding the garden hose. “Aww, whatcha go wasting the wet stuff like that for, watering me like I’m one of your garden projects?” he complained.

“It’s a traditional way of waking up somebody who’s making a nuisance of themselves,” Mary complained. “What did you pass out in the front lawn for, anyway? Were you out drinking at Joe’s?”

“No, I ain’t touched a drop since the last time it rained,” Robert said. Maybe that was part of his problem. “It rained last night.”

“Did not.”

“Did too – somewhere over yonder.” Robert tried to point where he’d seen the lightning, but the memory was already faded. “If it doesn’t rain here soon, the bank gets everything.”

What do you think?