Tommy is a good mate of mine and he slapped together twelve short story challenges, one for each month.
In January's, I had to write a short story with this opening line: "She was a stranger in a very strange land."
I decided to make the challenge even harder by limiting myself to 250 words - to try and squeeze as much impact and imagery as i could in flash fiction.
This is my story...
She was a stranger in a very strange land.
Every movement felt heavy. Her mind was murky, thoughts slipped in and out of her focus, unable to pin one down. But what she saw around her was vivid. There was depth, a sense of near and far, but nothing made sense. Why was she here?
She had decided it was a dream.
Blades of grass, fresh and vibrant poked up around her white joggers. In the distance was a mountain range gently touching the vast ceiling of heavy clouds.
What was her purpose here? she wondered.
And the answer became clear – to stop. To forget, to rest and relax and enjoy the nothingness around her, at least until the dream expired.
She sat, legs crossed, and smelled the moisture in the air. The scent of recent rain. A scent that had always changed her, brought her down to earth again and quietened her mind. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to fall onto the soft grass behind her.
Only, it wasn’t grass she landed on.
It was the springy bounce of her mattress. Above her spun a fan. Morning light poured in through scarlet drapes. In her nightie, she sat, the dream stubborn, refusing to leave.
She wandered to her wardrobe and opened the door. Her white joggers were there on the top shelf, front and centre. She lifted one and sniffed the heal.
The scent of rain.