Wind Chill Factor
1December 22, 2021 by The Citron Review
by Laura Besley
Mother storms in, like the mistral.
After taking her coat, Marian goes to the kitchen to make tea; tea Mother will taste, for propriety’s sake, then leave, her disdain palatable.
Mother’s glances chill the room Marian and I have spent the last six weekends decorating. ‘Shame you haven’t done much with the place,’ she says.
I breathe in. One. No longer will I take this. Two. No longer will I let her trample all over me. Three. Or Marian. Four. I breathe out. ‘Mother–’
She raises an eyebrow. Silence descends, broken only by the rattling of the teacups.
Laura Besley is the author of micro fiction collection, 100neHundred (Arachne Press, 2021), and flash fiction collection, The Almost Mothers (Dahlia Books, 2020). She has been listed by TSS Publishing as one of the top 50 British and Irish Flash Fiction writers. Her work has been nominated for Best Microfiction and her story, “To Cut a Long Story Short,” will appear in the Best Small Fictions anthology in 2021.
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[…] character and more. Read some of Laura’s stories in Reflex Fiction, Selcouth Station, Citron Review and 101words to discover the magic of openings in very short-short […]