Flash Fiction: Before They Caged it Over

/ Claire Fuller

peter-abbey11

Before they caged it over, before they wired it in, I was dared by a boy in my class to throw a brick from a footbridge, on the way to school. In assembly the Headmaster’s voice was grave: a driver had been seriously injured, may not in fact live. A boy wearing our school uniform was seen. The perpetrator must step forward.

I was ready, I swear, to own up; was raising my hand when the school secretary tapped me on the shoulder and led me out to the lobby, where my red-eyed and white-faced mother waited.

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Hear me read: 

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Sorry everyone that I’ve gone back to bleak. Congratulations to Rochelle for four years of hosting Friday Fictioneers. A champion facilitator! To join in with your own 100-word story inspired by the picture (this week supplied by Peter Abbey) click here, or click here to read others.

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Yesterday I heard that one of my flash fiction pieces which used a Friday Fictioneers story as its base has been long listed in the Bath Flash Fiction Award. This a rolling flash fiction competition open worldwide for stories of up to 300 words. It opens for again for entries on 1st November – perhaps some other Fictioneers would be interested in entering. More information here.

56 thoughts on “Flash Fiction: Before They Caged it Over”

  3. Wow, that’s powerful. He might be responsible for his own dad’s death, then? Well, that’s the conclusion I’m jumping to. Simple yet grimly done. And so easy to be led to do something stupid when you’re so young too. Heartbreaking.
    Huge congrats for the Bath Flash Fiction Award and thank you for the heads up on the next window. Very tempting. Anywhere we can read your story, or is it to be published later? Well done again 🙂

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  21. A chilling story and tragic in so many ways. A thoughtless act, a moment of foolishness, that destroys individuals and families. My heart goes out to the instigator and the perpetrator. Just children and now so damaged by consequences beyond their imagining.

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  25. This one truly took my breath away. Such a burden. Just the other day, I saw some boys on an overpass, as I drove under, saw their faces… and wondered about something like this. There is a whole lot more story here, but this 100 words is deliciously good.

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  27. Pingback: Flash Fiction: Before They Caged it Over — Claire Fuller | Arrowhead Freelance and Publishing

  28. I think this story was incredibly powerful because the voice of the boy was so palpable. It’s a very effective piece of flash fiction, and demonstrates the power of language when crafted by the right hands 🙂 I look forward to reading more of your work!

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