Loveday Writing

The brief of the AWC Furious Fiction – September 2023 short story competition was as follows:

• Your story must start and end with the same sentence.
• Your story must feature something being inflated
• Your story must include the words FLAG, FLAME, FLASH, and FLATTER.

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Daily Routine

My birthday is really just like every other day.

I go through the same routine, nothing special. My bed is made, sometimes new sheets are put on after I’ve been moved, the blinds are opened and the morning sun shines on my face, the day greeting me. I feel my lungs inflate like a balloon as I breathe, the air always feels so fresh. No red flags are greeting me or anyone else around me yet.

I’m basically washed, today my hair wasn’t washed rather sprayed with dry shampoo, and put in fresh clothes. The clothes aren’t anything special, but I know when my friends come by that they’ll flatter me about them anyway and tell me I look good.

My family will light-heartedly tease me about getting older when they bring me my birthday cake. Last year they replaced the traditional candles with LED ones, joking about the flame getting bigger and becoming a fire hazard. I also heard someone telling my dad something else about them too, something about ‘oxygen tank’ and ‘explosion.’

Eventually they’ll all leave and I’ll be left alone, surrounded by silence, with the exception of the constant beeping of the machines that have replaced my nightstands. My life used to be all “go, go, go!,” with each day going by in a flash, now all my days are the same, as long as I’m in this coma.

My birthday is really just like every other day.