The Walk - 250-word micro-fiction
Image source: Pixabay image by TryJimmy
The Walk
It was time.
“Come,” the warden said. He stood in the opening to Ricky’s cell, flanked by somber guards.
Ricky knew them well. The warden, Aaron Mapleton, was gritty, brutal, but with soft spots. For instance, he could never stand to see a man go hungry. The guards were Sven Jorgenson and Brian Finn, two enormous linebacker types who had played for the same high school football team.
Ricky stood, his shackles jangling. Horrid things. Designed to limit movement, in fact they took the man out of the man. What had he become, after a year in their confines? An animal.
Mapleton cleared his throat. “Is there… anything more you want? You may have a meal, if you choose. Anything you like.”
Too little, too late. Ricky narrowed his eyes at the warden. “No. Thank you.”
Mapleton turned to lead the procession. The guards flanked Ricky, and they began their slow walk down the corridor. Evidently, even in this final hour, he must be shackled. Unbelievable.
The other inmates watched silently as he passed. He focused his eyes forward.
They halted at the steel door. Mapleton unlocked it, and the four entered a chamber. This was it. Jorgenson and Finn bent to unshackle him as Mapleton bolted the first door and unlocked another on the other side of the chamber.
Finally, Mapleton handed him a brown parcel.
Ricky glared at him and accepted it. “You always knew I was innocent.” He stepped out into the sunlight, then, a free man.
Thank you for reading my micro-fiction story. As always, I have written it in exactly 250 words. Your comments are welcome!
I run a weekly micro-fiction writing contest on the Steem platform. This story is my piece for the current prompt, "time." Naturally, I am not entering the contest, but I do enjoy writing stories for the contest prompts.
Do you have an interest in micro-fiction? If you'd like to try your hand at it, watch for the new prompt each week by Monday morning, Central time, with the #microfiction tag.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://jaynalocke.com/2019/05/19/the-walk-250-word-micro-fiction/
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
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Thanks for visiting, @c-squared! Yes, I have been meaning to check you guys out!
You should participate as a curator @jayna! Just join the discord and ask for the "curator" role. It is a totally no strings attached, no hoops to jump through, no pressure kinda thing. Basically, if you see a post by another author that you think deserves more love - drop the link in one of the curation channels. I would love to see you there (I am one of the cofounders of c-squared)
Thanks so much for the invitation, @carlgnash! I just might do that. Just have to assess my current level of over-commitment to see if there is room for a “wafer thin mint.” 😁
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The nice thing about C-squared curator role is it is zero commitment. If you never bring in a post that is okay. Keep it in your back pocket and if you see a good post that you think deserves more love you would have a way to boost it up. Let me know if you have any questions
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A zero commitment commitment? Sign me up! :-)
Seriously, it sounds great. I'll definitely check it out.
Excellent story @jayna. I was in tension until the time of the final outcome. Congratulations.
Thank you very much, @felixgarciap! I’m so glad you liked it. 😁
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Well I thought his was going a different direction :) Hard to fit a twist into a 250 word micro fiction but you managed to tell a story and take it in an unexpected direction :) Love it!
Thanks @carlgnash! How lovely to hear from you!
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Loved the story. Of course, I thought we were going with him on his "last walk". I'm glad you surprised me with the freedom ending.
Thank you, @blueeyes8960. I’m glad to hear the ending was a surprise. You know how it is when you’re treading that fine line between too subtle and too obvious. It’s hard to know whether you’ve kept the balance.
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@jayna You always do a great job with your stories. I'm loving the one you wrote for @steemfiction, by the way.
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STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
You create a strong tension in your micro-fiction by playing with the expectation perhaps prefixed in the reader. From the title ("The Walk"), the elements of the dialogue, the small actions including one's own walk down the aisle (we get the famous phrase, something like "Dead Man Walking"), etc. Everything comes together to fulfill the predetermined expectation in the psyche and imaginary of the reader. But you transgress it intelligently only with the small final paragraph. Bravo! Very good, @jayna!
I’m so glad you liked it, @josemalavem. It was really fun to write, trying to employ details that could mean more than one thing. 😁
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