Flash Fiction Friday: “Strange Bedfellows”

I had a hard time with this one. I threw out idea after idea—one I had already written but just couldn’t get down to 250 words. I managed exactly 250 with this one (according to Microsoft Word), but I only found a way to include two of the wildcards: “turquoise” and “swan”; my own wildcard suggestion, “hagiography”, just wouldn’t fit in. Oh well. It’s a story. I hope you enjoy it.

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STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

I met Lisa at the E-Room, a bar in Portland. She was in her mid-thirties, about fifteen years older than me, but she was still hot. I introduced myself as Jessie and engaged her in conversation. She was in town looking up family. She seemed sad, so I didn’t press. By midnight, we were drunk and horny, so we went to her hotel. When I left the next morning, we decided to see each other for dinner.

I showed up in a black skirt and matching low-cut top, accented with my most treasured possession: a turquoise pendant shaped like a swan. Lisa was waiting in the lobby. When she saw me, she looked perplexed.

“What?” I wondered.

“The necklace.”

“My mother’s. She died when I was four.”

“Jessie,” she whispered. “Jessica.” Suddenly crying, she said, “She didn’t die. She was a teen mom, and she couldn’t handle it. She ran away when she was eighteen, left you with her parents. They only told you she was dead.”

“What? I don’t understand.”

“The family I came to find was Jessica, my daughter. I recognize that necklace, the only thing I left her. It has to be you.”

“But my mom’s name isn’t Lisa; it’s—”

“Elisabeth. I shortened it when I ran away.”

Thinking of the previous night, I wanted to vomit, but I composed myself, thought of a way to ease the extreme awkwardness of the situation, and said, “Well…Mom…you found me…and that was one hell of an introduction.”

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COPYRIGHT NOTICE

This story is copyright © 2009 Travis King and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.