Flash fiction by Lisa Adamowicz Kless
The cat barked. She was sure of it. She was standing in the lobby of a quaint German hotel, as a very cheerful and sturdy-looking woman spoke to them in heavily-accented English. A fluffy and slow moving cat appeared from around a corner, lazily making its way towards the stairs. Suddenly, the caged bird behind the desk opened its beak. She was shocked for a split second–the sound coming out of its tiny body wasn’t an ordinary bird song, but a very clear and high pitched “meow…meow”. During other moments of this trip, she had wished she could at the very least understand her great-grandfather’s native language, if not speak it herself. She was intrigued by the almost harsh-sounding words, and longed for some semblance of understanding when people spoke. Yet here she was, clutching her suitcase in her hand, amazed and amused, all at once. The damn bird was meowing! It required no translation whatsoever…
2 responses so far ↓
1 Bill Schroeder // Mar 28, 2008 at 9:29 am
Meow-Nice twist. I very much liked/ enjoyed the descriptive wording–quaint, strudy, heavy, slow, fluffy, etc. I wonder what you’ll do with the prompt for April meeting,”The room was vacant except”—Looking forward to it.
2 Eric McMurtrey // Mar 30, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Okay…
This did for me what any good piece should, it left me wanting more. Why was she in the hotel? What else was amiss in this place? Why was everything backwards?
As I said - job well done. You left me thinking about your piece.
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