The Pouch - Micro-fiction
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The Pouch
Clara held onto the small pouch on the bus ride from St. Paul to St. Cloud. Why were so many towns around here named for saints? Dense fog shrouded the bus as if to confuse it, send it off course. This was good. It matched the subterfuge of her task.
What was in that pouch?
She caressed its stitches. Her task was to deliver it, quietly, from one university laboratory to another.
Professor Mark Higgins: “Deliver this to Professor Sandra Driskill.” A stern look. “Do not open it!”
The man in the seat in front of her reached up to stretch with the hairiest arms she had ever seen. She imagined a fictional world in which intelligent apes behaved like humans. She envisioned the sympathetic characters and the cretins on the human side, whose prejudice would get in the way of reasonable thinking. She thought of the resulting tragedies. And then she realized the story had already been told.
What was in that pouch?
At the next stop, more people got on the bus and she was squashed in next to a woman with a small dog in a carrier that she held on her lap. The dog shivered.
The bus came to the outskirts of St. Cloud. Just like that, they emerged through the ghostly swamp of fog and were set free above its clutches. They rumbled through town to the campus. Perhaps just one peek. She uncinched the drawstrings. It was rose petals. And a tiny love note.
Thank you for reading my very short story. Each week I write a 250-word fiction piece based on the week's Micro-fiction contest prompt. I run the contest, so I don't write them as entries, but just for fun. I love the challenge of writing a complete story within the tight limit of 250 words. The prompt for this story was "stitch."
In this story, I attempted to add a non-linear element that somewhat shakes the story from its linear course. It was an experiment in supporting the character's development to show something about the character without telling it in words. In this case, the idea was to show that the character has a rich imagination, which affects her judgment. What do you think?
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://jaynalocke.com/2019/03/03/the-pouch-micro-fiction/
Great story. I just hope she hasn't just failed some kind of test by giving in to her curiosity.
Oh I think she probably has! Thanks for reading.
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Proof of concept, @jayna. Everything flows well. I found that digression pleasurable and insightful about the character as in your intentions! Btw, we would be honored to welcome you in our discord channel :-)
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Do not open it asks for being opened ...
Good there were no organs of Valentine or Cupid in it... the dog shivered for an other reason.
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My thoughts as well! I was worried about what was in that pouch, and several ideas came and went before I settled on this. And that shivering dog was disturbed, not cold, I think.
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A beautiful story, dear @jayna. The story is addressed towards the end to play with the reader's expectations.
One accompanies this traveler as a twin mind that has the same prejudices and a slightly macabre curiosity.
I liked it very much.
Thank you, @adncabrera. I’m glad the story tickled your macabre curiosity!
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