Every week we post six lines of a story of ours, a work-in-progress or from someone else’s work we recommend that has LGBT characters on Rainbow Snippets here https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets

Our main characters here are extremely closeted but not to the man they encounter in this story. (You can guess his real name!) This was written for ‘Nathan Burgoine’s Flash Fiction Draw Challenge with the draws being a fantasy involving hot chocolate set in a junkyard. My story has these and a few TV/Literature/Movie Easter Eggs. Here’s the whole thing https://authorjeffbaker.com/2018/06/11/chocolate-in-a-junkyard-for-the-monthly-flash-fiction-draw-challenge-by-jeff-baker-june-11-2018/

Here’s the first snippet, a bit more than six lines from “Caliburnus and Chocolate.”

“Who are you?” came a voice. I jumped. The siding had moved and an old man was peering out of the closed gate.

“Uh, hi,” I said. “I’m Geoff Monmouth…”

“They call him Mouthy,” Terry said with a grin. I glared.

“We’re looking for a couple of replacement parts for my, uh, for a 1974 Chevy Nova,” I said. “A rear bumper and a left rear taillight.”

Here’s another snippet:

The man stared at us another moment, then unlocked the gate.

“Enter, then,” he said. “I am Foremann Aurelian, keeper of this place.” The man was old, he was so weather beaten I couldn’t tell whether he was Native American, Latino or any ethnicity. His hair was scraggly and pure white with a fringe of beard around his chin. And he was big. At least six-foot-two. I was six feet even, but this guy looked like he might be solid muscle under his jacket. Of course, it could have been the layered flannel shirts.

Here’s one more snippet:

“Gruffudd yn Aur was such as you,” Aurelian said. “A paladin of honor and duty, loyal to the crown and to the man he had chosen. Later generations had his name stricken from the Chronicles, but I recall him battling, and also raising high the tankard, and, wait, put that down.”

I had picked up an old bulb horn from a stack of hubcaps.

“That is a destiny for others,” Aurelian said, “Though it may not be the Horn of Bran Galed, the search for mighty Caliburnus is your destiny.”

Okay, that’s it for now! Did you recognize Foremann Aurelian? Our two young lads didn’t! And I promise someday I’ll uncover what the chronicles say about Gruffudd yn Aur and his adventures. Oh, and check my response in the comments of the original post where I identify the easter eggs in the story! Next week, more snippets I’m sure you’ll enjoy! Until then, goodnight! ——jeff