100 Words Archives - Tom Flanders World

100 Words – Vivid Police

When Alexander gets truly stressed he suffers from vivid hallucinations of police surrounding him. They are there one second, gone the next. The first time this happened was his first semester of college. It started a week before finals and got worse every day. After the last final he got puke in the street drunk, and that was the end of the phantom cops.

His therapist tells him that when he sees the cops he needs to take the blue pill. She thinks that’s funny. Alexander sticks with her because she’s the only shrink he’s found that’s smarter than him.

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Tags: police,vivid | Comments (0) | Author: Tom | Published: April 13, 2019

100 Words – Witness

I came to witness the second coming of Truman Capote. All I got was a bunch of tourists puking their green drinks on cobbled streets. Old buildings gutted of their souls and cheapness. No longer the refuge of poets and madmen. They have fled for the fringes where visitors need not witness their divine ugliness.

The saddest part of all was realizing that I was also just a tourist. A voyeuristic dilettante climbing onto the shoulders of giants. Seeking approval from the ghosts of my heroes who care not for the living. Just the suffering of those doomed to follow.

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Tags: truman capote,witness | Comments (0) | Author: Tom | Published: April 6, 2019

100 Words – Woods

The echoes in the woods magnified our sense of danger. Creatures scurried on either side of the road, but they were small and harmless. It was the occasional ground-shaking thud that was worrying. It seemed to come from every direction and had no pattern.

Then there was a mighty bang and the world tipped on its side. I woke up some time later with a terrible headache. Gravity seemed to have righted itself. The stars were all gone. I couldn’t see the road ahead of me. I sat there waiting for the dawn the dawn to come. It never did.

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Tags: woods | Comments (0) | Author: Tom | Published: March 30, 2019

100 Words – Other People’s Nostalgia

I live unwillingly in other people’s nostalgia. I walk down the street and I am bombarded by their best and mostly false memories from long-ago. Everything is black-and-white in soft focus and too much sunshine.

I long for that rare event of someone with a truly dark subconscious. Grainy horrors and scary monsters. When I find one I follow them as long as I can remain hidden. I have to break it off when they notice me because they are always adept at using the weapons they always carry.

When all else fails the bottle is my guide. Sweet oblivion.

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Tags: other | Comments (0) | Author: Tom | Published: March 24, 2019

100 Words – Lost

The last time I rode my bike on a dirt road, everything went fine. Not today. None of the roads were straight and the sounds of the nearby highway echoed from every direction. I knew I was truly lost when I came to the intersection of County Road 232 and County Road 232.

After some weird macho attempt to be above being lost I peddled about a hundred yards, then gave in and got out my phone. The GPS map showed that there were indeed two CR232s, and I was on the wrong one. From now on, check maps first.

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Tags: lost | Comments (0) | Author: Tom | Published: March 17, 2019

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