2023-09-22
Furious Fiction: Say It with Cake

I was getting so used at winning a nomination in the Furious Fiction challenge that I was disappointed when the results of the latest edition came in. No nomination for me this time.

These were the criteria:

Your story must start and end with the same sentence.
I went for a long sentence to open my story: Mrs. Rhodes can’t help but smile at the woman: “And you won second place?”
Your story must feature something being inflated.
I chose a swelling chest, symbolizing an inflated self-esteem.
Your story must include the words FLAG, FLAME, FLASH and FLATTER. (Longer words are okay if original spelling is retained.)
I marked these words in bold in my submission.

This was what I submitted:

Say It with Cake

Mrs. Rhodes can’t help but smile at the woman: “And you won second place?”
Mrs. Fields nods, her chest swelling with pride. Her self-esteem is so inflated that she hardly fits through the door.
“Let me take this off your hands,” Mr. Rhodes offers, saving his neighbor from dropping her home-baked welcome gift as she maneuvers her body into the hallway.

Mrs. Fields had adorned her cake with gaudy silver flags, not only to celebrate her achievement in the local baking contest, but also to cover up the most obvious imperfections of her creation. It had taken three painstaking attempts to finally attain a presentable result, a vast improvement compared to the numerous trials she had endured in perfecting her award-winning masterpiece.

“I can give you the recipe,” Mrs. Fields winks at Mrs. Rhodes as Mr. Rhodes takes the plate to the kitchen, “but it’s quite complicated. Don’t expect it to turn out as exquisite as mine.”
She flashes a superior look at her new neighbor. Mrs. Rhodes might be younger and slimmer than she is, but Mrs. Fields is determined to prove that she can surpass her new neighbor in many other aspects.

Mr. Fields rolls his eyes with embarrassment at his wife’s behavior.
“Don’t flatter yourself, dear,” he smirks, making his wife face the truth. “There were only two contestants.”
Mrs. Fields’ eyes shoot a fiery flame of anger toward her husband.

Mrs. Rhodes can’t help but smile at the woman: “And you won second place?”

Topics: kortverhalen / short stories