WINNER
Sucker for a Pretty Flash (a Microfiction Contest)
by Claire Taylor
After Tyler falls off a ladder, he’s not the same man Carolyn married. He’s harder now—quick-tempered and lacking a filter. He must be gently rebuked and redirected like a toddler when he calls Heather a dumb cunt for spilling beer at the neighborhood barbecue.
Carolyn apologizes, but Heather waves her off and says “I wonder if we all have another version of ourselves inside us waiting to get knocked loose?”
Last night while they were fucking, Tyler pressed a hand to Carolyn’s throat and squeezed. She came harder than she ever has in all their years together.
“Maybe” Carolyn replies.
Claire Taylor is a writer in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications and she was a finalist for the 2020 Lascaux Prize in Poetry. Her micro-chapbook, A History of Rats, is available from Ghost City Press. Claire is the editor in chief of Little Thoughts Press, a print magazine of writing for and by kids. She serves as a staff reader for Capsule Stories. Find Claire online at clairemtaylor.com or Twitter @ClaireM_Taylor.
Emerge Literary Journal 