When his eyes grew so bad that he could no longer see the horizon he built an artificial one in his garden. Afterwards he persisted in a stubborn refusal to cross it in case he should fall off the edge of the world. Asked, on reflection, if he had realised his intention as a younger man, to live the brief and fiery life of a meteor, he looked out across the universe of his garden, to the wife he still loved indescribably, and said,

“I am a meteor, just moving very, very slowly.”

— Previously published as a Highly Commended entry in the 100-Word Competition 2014 sponsored by National Flash Fiction Day; republished here by author’s permission

Morgan Downie

“is an unreliable narrator with a deep mistrust of artist’s statements....”

www.morgandownie.com

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ National Flash Fiction Day, home of the annual 100-word flash competition, and publisher of the 2014 NFFD Anthology, Eating My Words, in which Downie’s story also appears

⚡ Revolution, a 72-word prose poem at the author’s website