March 2011 Flash Fiction Challenge Winner is: Janel Gradowski
Soft snowflakes began to fall. "How funny," she thought, "that winter should come
on the very day my heart began to melt."
Fortunate
“You will soon find the love of your life.” The fortune teller drummed her fingers on the table. Her gaudy costume rings glinted in the dim light. She scowled at the tea leaves in the bottom of the mug. “Very soon. Yes, indeed. Soon.”
“Um, thanks, but you’re wrong.” Kelly hooked her purse strap over her shoulder and stood up. “I swore off men two months ago.”
The old lady held out her hand, palm up, waiting for payment. Dozens of thin, metal bracelets chimed on her wrist. “Who said it would be a man?”
Mortification crept up Kelly’s neck. In a few seconds her face was a smoldering ember. A trickle of sweat slithered down her forehead. She shoved a couple bills into the woman’s hand and bolted out the front door.
Kelly scanned the people passing by on the sidewalk. She would never be able to face her friends if they found out she had gone to a tacky fortune teller. A gust of frigid wind blew her hair over her face. It smelled like patchouli incense.
Not a man? Of all the things she expected the fortune teller to predict, that wasn’t one of them. You will wander in the desert of bad dates for two more years. You’ve already met the love of your life, too bad you let him get away. Either of those things would have been better. She didn’t want another deceitful couch potato or clueless womanizer, but she did want a man.
She rubbed her hands together, trying to warm her icy fingers. Getting buffeted by an arctic cold front was a great way to cool down a case of scorching embarrassment. Kelly tried to read the daily special sign in the window of the coffee shop across the street and tripped over something.
“What the . . .”
There was a cardboard box at her feet. A fuzzy, yellow puppy was curled up in a corner, shivering. Free To A Good Home was written in red marker on the side of the box. The puppy whimpered. She picked it up and snuggled it into the warmth of her coat. The puppy licked her chin. Kelly giggled. Soft snowflakes began to fall. "How funny," she thought, "that winter should come on the very day my heart began to melt."
Copyright© by Janel Gradowski, 2011 - Visit Janel online at Janel's Jumble
| 
