From Tracie: Flash In The Can

Monday, June 01, 2015

Flash In The Can

Because sometimes you need a little flash fiction....


Flash In The Can

More berries. More veggies. More tomatoes.

The work never ends.

She leans over the hot stove, stirring her many pots.

Canning season they call it. She remembers her grandmother saying that. Although everything she made was going into a jar, and not a can, so that name seemed wrong. But jarring season didn't sound so great, either.

She was building quite the collection of filled jars. They filled the shelves in the basement nicely.

Jars of preserves lined up on a shelf

There was a time when all these things could be bought in a store. She went to one of those when she was very little, walking hand in hand with her mother down long aisles with tall shelves. Her mouth watered just thinking about the little chocolate cakes they bought that day.

But it has been many years since a store was a reality. Not since the storms.

Many things had changed.

And now it is can or facing starving in the long winter months that will surely come soon.

She stirs her pots and whispers gratitude that this abandoned farmhouse had so many jars in the basement when she moved in three years ago.

She is so intent on her work that she doesn't even notice the flash of light reflected in her vegetable stew from the lightning outside, or the smell of rain on its way.

Storms are brewing.

.....what do you think happens next? 

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