Friday 6 April 2012

#RomanticFridayWriters - #AtoZChallenge - Dribbles, Drabbles and Droubbles - Flash Fiction No 6 - 'F is for Follow that car!'



Welcome to RomanticFridayWriters!

RFW is about short short writing or flash fiction (usually 400 words), less for poems, with some romantic element. It's not Romance of the happily ever after variety, but Romantic, where it's about the story, the issue, with some romantic relationship involved. Our stories are edgy, sometimes dark, and often don't have the HEA ending! 

The fortnightly prompts are in hiatus while RFW participates in the A - Z Challenge. Challenges begin again on May 4 (see sidebar prompt). During April you will find stories from 50 - 200 words (in the interests of a quick read so you can move onto the next post!) Most of the posts will be penned by Denise Covey as she just decided overnight to do this, but other RFW members will be popping in from time to time to post their stories I hope...

So here we go! RFW Dribbles (50 words), Drabbles (100 words) and Droubbles (200 words) and more (400 ish)...for your enjoyment - a laugh, a cry...

It's widely agreed that most fiction (unless it's solely about animals) begins and ends with human characters: their frailties, virtues, conflicts and expectations. In our stories for the A - Z Challenge the writers attempt to more closely observe the people around us...

F is for 'Follow that Car!'


'Follow that car!' Sasha yelled.

'This is not the movies,' the rickshaw driver said.

'Well, it's Mumbai, Bollywood, what's the difference?' Sasha asked.

'We not go mighty fast,' he panted. 'Me very, very old.'

'Yeah, I can see that. You'll never catch that lowdown skunk at this rate, but maybe that's your plan.' 

I had to get my jewels back. Marty would kill me if I returned without them, stolen or not. I should never have trusted that shifty hotel concierge. Should have known he'd run off with them instead of keeping them safely locked away.

'Can't you go faster? Why haven't you got one of those new fandangled cycle rickshaws, or a motor rickshaw? Here I am zig-zagging through the traffic with just pedal power. There must be a million vehicles in this street.'

Sasha caught the smirk on his face. No doubt he was in on the heist. Weren't they all? What a corrupt mob.

'I'm outta here,' she yelled, throwing a few rupees his way. She felt kinda sorry for the old dude as he leaned over, mopping his face and under his turban, but couldn't resist a parting shot before she took off in pursuit of her contraband.

'Well India is just as corrupt as Lonely Planet says. You can't trust anyone, not even thieves.'

'And you American tourists are just as rude as Lonely Planet says. You'll never catch Deep. He always gets away, hee hee.'

©DeniseCovey2012
Words 230
(I've just seen the film, The Exotic Magnolia Hotel, set amongst the rickshaws in beautiful, crazy India!)

                                                                         

Denise, (L'Aussie) writes short stories, flash fiction, travel articles and newspaper profiles while working on her Great Australian Novels. She's the founder of RomanticFridayWriters. Her writing blog is L'Aussie Writing. She'd love you to visit her there for her A - Z Challenge on the theme, BLOGGERS WERE CHILDREN TOO! 

12 comments:

  1. Hehehehe. that was fun, lets do it again :)

    ......dhole

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  2. Awesome - I can't decide whether to feel sorry for her or be glad that she's been suckered :-)

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  3. Fun read. Had no sympathy for her with comments made like that. Way to create a different character to spin the story around.

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  4. Thanks for the giggle--great piece of flash!
    ~2

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    1. Thanks for visiting Tomara. Glad you liked it. D.

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  5. Another great sense of time and place, and I could smell Mumbai... :(

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    1. Thanks Francine for having a bit of fun in Mumbai with me. D.

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  6. Hello Denise.
    A few months back, I actually came across a post about this kind of thievery involving taxi drivers. The article was written by someone actually living in India who probably wouldn't be alive to tell the tale today if she had continued on with her journey in the taxi...she actually jumped out while it was moving. This is humorous but also has an element of truth to it. Awesome!

    Day 6: Forbidden Kisses

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    1. Yes, Andy, sadly there's a LOT of truth in it. D.

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