Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories

Edited By
James Thomas
Denise Thomas
Tom Hazuka

NEW YORK • 1992

Copyright ©1992
by James Thomas, Denise Thomas, and Tom Hazuka
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America

The text of this book is composed in Weiss with the display set in Serif Gothic Bold Composition
by PennSet, Inc.
Manufacturing by Courier Companies, Inc.
Book design by Charlotte Staub

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Flash fiction : very short stories / edited by James Thomas,
Denise Thomas, and Tom Hazuka
p. cm.
1. Short stories, American I. Thomas, James
II. Thomas, Denise III. Hazuka, Tom
PS648.S5F58          1992
813'.0108—dc20          91-42347

ISBN 0-393-03361-9 (cl)
ISBN 0-393-30883-9 (pa)

I
NTRODUCTION
by James Thomas

1. 
S
PENCER
H
OLST:
Brilliant Silence

2. 
F
RANCINE
P
ROSE:
Pumpkins

3. 
R
ICHARD
S
HELTON:
The Stones

4. 
J
OANNA
H
. WOŚ:
The One Sitting There

5. 
D
AN
O
’BRIEN:
Crossing Spider Creek

6. 
A
LLEN
W
OODMAN:
The Lampshade Vendor

7. 
W
ILLIAM
H
EYEN:
Roseville

8. 
L
EX
W
ILLIFORD:
Pendergast’s Daughter

9. 
K
ENT
T
HOMPSON:
Ponderosa

10. 
S
TUART
D
YBEK:
Gold Coast

11. 
L
ARRY
F
RENCH:
Mr. Mumsford

12. 
A
DRIENNE
C
LASKY:
From the Floodlands

13. 
A
LLAN
G
URGANUS:
A Public Denial

14. 
C
AROL
E
DELSTEIN:
232-9979

15. 
R
AYMOND
C
ARVER:
The Father

16. 
L
ON
O
TTO:
Love Poems

17. 
B
RET
L
OTT:
Night

18. 
K
RISTIN
A
NDRYCHUK:
Mandy Shupe

19. 
T
OM
H
AWKINS:
Wedding Night

20. 
B
RUCE
E
ASON:
The Appalachian Trail

21. 
R
USSELL
E
DSON:
Dinner Time

22. 
L
UISA
V
ALENZUELA:
Vision Out of the Corner of One Eye

23. 
P
AMELA
P
AINTER:
I Get Smart

24. 
D
ON
S
HEA:
True Love

25. 
C
AROLYN
F
ORCHÉ:
The Colonel

26. 
J
ULIA
A
LVAREZ:
Snow

27. 
D
AVID
F
OSTER
W
ALLACE:
Everything Is Green

28. 
M
ICHAEL
D
ELP:
Draft Horse

29. 
R
ICHARD
B
RAUTIGAN:
Corporal

30. 
G
REGORY
B
URNHAM:
Subtotals

31. 
G
ARY
G
ILDNER:
Fingers

32. 
J
O
S
APP:
Nadine at 35. A Synopsis

33. 
R
OLAND
T
OPOR:
Feeding the Hungry

34. 
M
ICHAEL
M
ARTONE:
Dish Night

35. 
W
ILL
B
AKER:
Grace Period

36. 
M
ARY
M
ORRIS:
The Haircut

37. 
K
ENNETH
B
ERNARD:
Vines

38. 
R
OD
K
ESSLER:
How to Touch a Bleeding Dog

39. 
J
AMAICA
K
INCAID:
Girl

40. 
B
RUCE
H
OLLAND
R
OGERS:
The Burlington Northern, Southbound

41. 
H
EINRICH
B
ÖLL:
The Cage

42. 
R
OBERT
H
ILL
L
ONG:
The Restraints

43. 
E
LLEN
H
UNNICUTT:
Blackberries

44. 
J
ULIO
C
ORTÁZAR:
A Continuity of Parks

45. 
M
ICHAEL
O
PPENHEIMER:
The Paring Knife

46. 
J
OHN
U
PDIKE:
The Widow

47. 
J
IM
H
EYNEN:
What Happened during the Ice Storm

48. 
K
.C.
F
REDERICK:
Teddy’s Canary

49. 
C
HUCK
R
OSENTHAL:
The Nicest Kid in the Universe

50. 
K
ELLY
C
HERRY:
The Parents

51. 
F
RED
L
EEBRON:
Water

52. 
T
IM
O
’BRIEN:
Stockings

53. 
B
ERNARD
C
OOPER:
The Hurricane Ride

54. 
W
ILLIAM
B
ROHAUGH:
A Moment in the Sun Field

55. 
S
COTT
R
USSELL
S
ANDERS:
The Philosophical Cobbler

56. 
S
HEILA
B
ARRY:
Corners

57. 
M
ARK
S
TRAND:
Space

58. 
G
ORDON
L
ISH:
Fear: Four Examples

59. 
K
ATE
M
CCORKLE:
The Last Parakeet

60. 
P
AUL
L
ISICKY:
Snapshot, Harry Ceders: 1948

61. 
J
OYCE
C
AROL
O
ATES:
August Evening

62. 
M
ARY
D
ILWORTH:
The Factory

63. 
F
RANÇOIS
C
AMOIN:
The Sewers of Salt Lake

64. 
S
TEVEN
M
OLEN:
Jane

65. 
M
ARLENE
B
UONO:
Offerings

66. 
M
ARGARET
A
TWOOD:
Bread

67. 
R
ONALD
W
ALLACE:
Yogurt

68. 
P
AVAO
P
AVLICIĆ:
A Chronicler’s Sin

69. 
S
. 
F
RIEDMAN:
Here

70. 
D
IANE
W
ILLIAMS:
Here’s Another Ending

71. 
M
ARK
H
ALLIDAY:
108 John Street

72. 
L
ARRY
F
ONDATION:
Deportation at Breakfast

A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS

S
pecial thanks to the Department of English and the College of Liberal Arts at Wright State University for their generous support, to the many students at Wright State who helped in the selection of these stories, and to Chris Merrill, Carol Houck Smith, and Nat Sobel for their time and advice.

For Steve Molen
• 
In Memoriam
 •
His life story
was far too short

H
ow short can a story be and still truly be a story? This book attempts to provide a collective response to that question, although any answer, surely, will remain subjective. How short is
very
? Hemingway’s wonderful (and classic) “
A Very Short Story
” is about 750 words, and none of the stories here is much longer than that. Nor do any of the stories included in this anthology run less than 250 words, the diminutive
limit
that Jerome Stern has put to his “World’s Best Short-Short Story” competition, the winners of which appear each fall in
Sundog: The Southeast Review
.

Why
Flash Fiction
as opposed to
Sudden Fiction
, which we have featured in two previous books? Answer: We
did
want to make a distinction between the two types of stories. The stories here are shorter (in terms of “limit”) by a full thousand words than the stories in those books, and quantitatively there is a big difference between 1,750 words and 750 words. In terms of quality, however, we would maintain that the stories here are as fully dimensional and wholly complete as the
Sudden
stories. Like all fiction that matters, their success depends not on their length but on their depth, their clarity of vision, their human significance—the extent to which the reader is able to recognize in them the real stuff of real life.