7 Short Colourful Fiction Stories
There are so many colours and so many stories, there has to be a point at which they intersect. Sure enough, I found seven short stories in which colours played a part.
This week’s stories include green lawns, a red coat, a blue apple, Earl Grey tea, a yellow ribbon, an orange soda, and a purple flash drive.
These are the stories I read this week and what I thought.
** I’m not here to criticise any writer. The fact that these writers have put themselves out there and made these stories available for me to read for free is amazing and I thank you.**
Sunday: Perfecting Green
Perfecting Green by Phyllis Stewart-Ruffin. Read on the Flash Fiction Magazine website.
Dad wore his outdoor work clothes to do battle with nature.
What it’s about: A reminiscence about a father and his obsession with having a perfect lawn.
A nostalgic story narrated by a daughter (I’m assuming the narrator is female; it’s not actually specified) about how her father seemed happiest when he was tending his lawn. She remembers him caring about his lawn during her childhood and his new one later in retirement.
There is a lot of nice imagery in this story which makes it feel like a reminiscence about a real person, not just a made-up story.
Monday: Red Corduroy Coat
Red Corduroy Coat by Amber Ray Garcia. Read on the Cheap Pop website.
“Your mother won’t be able to let out my seams again this year,” the coat says.
What it’s about: A coat tells a young girl that this will be the last winter they spend together.
A fantasy story in which a girl and her coat have a conversation. The girl is almost too big for her coat, so they make a plan for what to do.
The writing in this piece of flash fiction deftly portrays the young girl’s curiosity about the world around her. She collects and touches and watches things around her as she talks with her coat.
This one is my pick of the week.
Tuesday: A Deep Desire for Blue
A Deep Desire for Blue by Alexandra Fox. Read on the SmokeLong Quarterly website.
Anna wanted to grow a blue apple. She didn’t ask for much.
What it’s about: Anna wants to grow a blue apple because everyone else grows red and green ones.
An ultimately sad story, narrated by Anna’s partner, in which the colour blue is a major factor in Anna’s life. The narrator is obviously very much in love with Anna and does what they can to bring her dream to fruition.
This is a short piece of fiction that covers about seven years and shows how much Anna is loved by her partner and her son.
Wednesday: Lady Grey
Lady Grey by Sophia Holme. Read on the Ellipsis Zine website.
…I watch your eyes widen after the first sip, your hands hug the cup all the way round…
What it’s about: The narrator visits someone they care about and brings real tea with them every time.
A from-the-heart story about doing something nice for someone you care about, even when they pretend they don’t care. It’s never explicitly stated what relationship the narrator is to the person they’re visiting regularly, but it’s not really needed.
Thursday: Tie a Yellow Ribbon
Tie A Yellow Ribbon by Harry Turtledove. Read on the TOR website.
Sasquatches and little people, of course, had been getting it on in Jefferson for as long as there’d been sasquatches and little people here. Bill thought one of his great-grandmothers had been a little woman. He wasn’t sure, but he thought so.
What it’s about: Governor Bill Williamson is a sasquatch. He befriends a hero sasquatch who comes home after being held hostage for over a year in Iran.
A fantasy story set in the 1980s in which Bill meets Mark as part of his official political duties as Governor of Jefferson. Mark talks about the discrimination he faced in Iran, and other places, and how he’s often seen as little more than an animal.
While the story didn’t really go anywhere, it was a perfect allegory of the discrimination and issues faced in the real world by people who are seen as different.
Friday: Cigarettes and an Orange Soda
Cigarettes and an Orange Soda by Makayla Boden. Read on the Reedsy Prompts blog.
It was a receipt from a gas station in Tacoma, Washington, where according to the slip of paper, my father had purchased a bottle of Fanta soda and a pack of Camel cigarettes.
What it’s about: A ten-year-old boy finds a receipt in his father’s car that implicates his father in a crime.
A crime story in which the narrator feels guilty because as a ten-year-old he had a suspicion that his father had committed a crime and he didn’t say anything at the time.
The receipt could be a coincidence, but maybe it’s not. We’ll never know, but the narrator obviously believes it’s no coincidence and he also believes his mother knew the truth too.
Saturday: Vegan Cake and a Purple Flash Drive
Vegan Cake and a Purple Flash Drive by Angela Largent. Read on the Short Fiction Break website.
I watched Brittany pack up her desk as people stopped by to congratulate her and give hugs, struggling to hold back their tears.
What it’s about: A jealous co-worker plans a going away party that people will never forget.
A contemporary story in which an unnamed narrator is jealous of Brittany, a co-worker. Brittany stole the narrator’s ideas, and everyone thinks Brittany is perfect, while no one likes the narrator. Brittany lands a plum job, and the narrator volunteers to plan her going away party.
This was a fun read. We all know a Brittany if we’ve worked in an office environment like this. The only thing I would have changed would have been to make the flash drive green since there was so much jealousy going on in this story.
TL;DR
This week’s short colourful stories, in the order that I enjoyed them. There wasn’t much between them all this week.
- Red Corduroy Coat by Amber Ray Garcia (Contemporary)
- A Deep Desire for Blue by Alexandra Fox (Contemporary)
- Lady Grey by Sophia Holme (Contemporary)
- Perfecting Green by Phyllis Stewart-Ruffin (Fantasy)
- Vegan Cake and a Purple Flash Drive by Angela Largent (Contemporary)
- Tie A Yellow Ribbon by Harry Turtledove (Fantasy)
- Cigarettes and an Orange Soda by Makayla Boden (Crime)
Story number 8
And one extra story if you’re interested. Here’s one of my own about the scarlet macaw that I wrote for a Vocal challenge: Saving the Scarlet Macaw.
I’m fascinated by short fiction. I write it and I read it.
As well as reading longer-form fiction, I try to read at least one short story every day. I select out-of-the-way stories and authors I’ve never read and sometimes never heard of.
Sometimes I pick competition entries, often ones that didn’t win. Sometimes I find random personal websites where someone has published their own stories. Sometimes I seek out professionally published stories from hardcopy books or online magazines. Sometimes I look for really old stories that are out of copyright and available online.
