“The Optimum Fractured Curve…” Rainbow Snippets From Jeff Baker (February 9th, 2024)

Posted on February 9, 2024 by jeffbaker307

February 9th, 2024

Every week we post six lines from a work of ours, a work-in-progress or published or a recommendation of someone else’s work with at least one LGBT character. Posted at Rainbow Snippets here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974

My snippets this week are from another story I’d forgotten about (from 2017.) “The Optimum Fractured Curve Against The Reality Flow Matrix Theory,” which was posted in October 2017. https://authorjeffbaker.com/2017/10/27/friday-flash-fics-from-jeff-baker-for-october-27-2017/ Nothing quite like bumping into an old college boyfriend. Except when he materializes unexpectedly in your house…

I hadn’t seen Roberto Anyas in about thirty years when I turned around that morning to see him lying there in bed. He hadn’t been there a moment before. He stared at me and a broad smile spread over his face.

“Connor?” the man in the bed said. Roberto’s voice all right.

“Roberto?” I managed to sputter out.

“Looks that way!” Roberto said. “My gosh! You look great!”

“Yeah, you too!” I said. “I mean, you really haven’t changed.” I was convinced I was still in bed asleep and that it was the middle of the night, not mid-morning. Usually when I dreamed about Roberto Anyas he was bare armed and bare chested. Like now.

Juuuust a bit more than six lines but I couldn’t resist! Here’s more!

“So, you zapped here from, like, 1988 or something?” I asked.

“More like the early 75th Century. After I graduated, I got involved with this think tank, we were going to try and reach the future. The tattoos are microdots, linked in with the mainframe and with me. I can work it mentally so I went ahead about eight thousand years. Tried to learn something about future technology.” He shook his head. “They didn’t like that. I got out of there in a hurry. You were the first person I thought of so I homed in on you.”

Hmmmm…I didn’t explain why Roberto popped in without his clothes…maybe he knew what he was doing after all! Next week, something a little newer. Till then, take care and happy reading! —-jeff

Posted in LGBT, Rainbow Snippets | 8 Comments

Meet The Improbable Pigeon Man for Friday Flash Fics by Jeff Baker. Friday February 9th, 2024.

Posted on February 9, 2024 by jeffbaker307

Rise Of the Improbable Pigeon Man!

By Jeff Baker

Cecil pulled his Volkswagen into the alley and glanced up and down. No one in sight. The men he had been discreetly following had stolen the only sample of the secret miracle serum. They were holed up in the next building.

The police couldn’t get to them in time. Only one thing to do.

Cecil jumped into the backseat and quickly changed into the feathered costume and mask of Pigeon Man!

He stepped out of the car and took a few hopping steps forward and fluttered clumsily into the air. He couldn’t fly very fast, very far or very high but it would be enough. He rose up until he was able to land on the second story fire escape outside the window. There, he listened. Like pigeons do.

Secret plans being hatched. A message was going to be sent via a text from a burner phone. By an accomplice not even in the city at an appointed time.

Clever.

Cecil listened and then, a feather from his costume tickled his nose and he sneezed!

The three men looked up. Had he pulled away from the window in time? They were coming!

The roof! Only place to hide!

He fluttered upward as the men stuck their heads out the window but didn’t look up.

Cecil began to lose altitude before he reached the roof. He plopped down, onto the heads of the three men who were now out cold on the fire escape.

Cecil called the police, didn’t give his name. Didn’t even give the name Pigeon Man. Not yet.

He fluttered back to the Volkswagen and drove off.

The world might not give a second glance at Cecil but they would soon marvel at the awesome might of…

He sneezed again.

Gotta take the feathers off the damn costume.

—end—

Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

“Mouselight Sonata.” February Flash Fiction Draw Challenge Story From Jeff Baker. February 6th, 2024.

Posted on February 6, 2024 by jeffbaker307
Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com

Mouselight Sonata

by Jeff Baker

(February 6, 2024)

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The draws for the February 2024 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge resulted in a Fantasy, set in an Empty Gymnasium, involving a Giant Mallet. My story flashes me back to my much, much younger days… —jsb

As it did once every so often a shaft of moonlight from the upper window shone on the wall of the old school gym, the gym largely used for calisthenics or storage since the new gym had been built.

The walls had been decorated with murals when the building had been part of a Grade School showing cute cartoony animals doing exercises. But this mural was something special. Illuminated by the light, the three jogging little mice in gym shorts suddenly hopped off the wall and began happily running around the gym floor on their hind legs, squeaking as adorably as they could. But the moonlight wasn’t done. It shone on the part of the mural where a tall, scowling cat wearing gym shorts and a shirt with “COACH” on it narrowed its eyes, licked its lips and jumped off of the wall and began scampering after the mice.

The mice looked up at the swiftly advancing cat in terror and scattered. On all fours the cat scrambled on its four feet trying to gain traction on the polished gym floor and slammed into the brick wall, for an instant crumpling like a concertina.

The mice stood and laughed until the cat suddenly uncrumpled and pounced, grabbing two of the mice and holding them down with one paw by their tails. The third mouse jumped back to the mural and quickly pulled out a pocket mirror. Using it to shine the moonlight onto another part of the mural, where the artist had painted a large mallet. The mouse quickly pulled the mallet off the mural, ran over and slammed the mallet down on the cat’s tail. The cat let out a yowl and let go of the mice who ran away. The cat quickly pursued them around the gym until they reached the spot they had been before. The mice ducked under the mallet the third mouse was holding but the cat, in hot pursuit, didn’t notice in time and slammed into the mallet head first.

The cat staggered back, a lump quickly rising on his head, surrounded by cute twittering birds and glowing stars. He shook his head to clear it and began the chase again, keeping an eye out for the mallet.

There was a distant noise, a metallic clatter, footsteps and soft voices.

The cat and mice glanced at each other and quickly raced back to their proper places inside the mural, grabbing the mallet along the way.

The door to the Gym opened and the lights came on, the first man in the suit leading the second man in.

“I don’t mind showing this off even early in the morning,” the first man said. “This is why this building is on the National Register of Historic Places.” He stopped before the mural. “A few years after he painted this, he went to work for a Hollywood studio and created the cartoons about the mice Len, Lon and Lou and their nemesis Catterwaul the Cat. The characters won an Oscar in 1955 and this mural was probably an early version. Right down to the wooden mallet they always had somewhere.” He paused. “You know, that’s odd,” he said.

“What’s odd?” said the second man.

“I would have sworn that mallet was on the other side of Catterwaul. Oh well, it’s two in the morning anyway.”

As they walked out of the gym and turned off the lights, the second man asked “Why a mallet in all their cartoons?”

“Didn’t you know?” the first man said. “Artist Buzzy Hanks’ real name was Henry Isadore Haptish. It means Mallet…”

Addenda: As may be too obvious, my homage to the cartoons I watched as a little kid and the people behind them. —jeff

Posted in Comedy, Fantasy, Fiction, Monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

Mallets, Gyms and Fantasies. February 2024 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge from Mike Mayak (2/4/24)

Posted on February 4, 2024 by jeffbaker307

First, here’s the prompts for the February 2024 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge. Then my usual long-winded explanation:

A Fantasy

Involving a Giant Mallet

Set in an Empty Gymnasium

Now, on to the details.

Hi! I’m Mike Mayak, I also write as Jeff Baker and I’m the current moderator for the monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, which was started by ‘Nathan Burgoine a few years ago and carried on by Cait Gordon and Jeffrey Ricker. It’s a monthly writing challenge mainly for stress-free fun that anyone can play.

Here’s how it works: the first Monday of every month I draw three cards; a heart, a diamond and a club. These correspond to a list naming a genre, a setting and an object that must appear in the story. Participants write up a flash fiction story, 1,000 words or less, post it to their website and link it here in the comments. I’ll post the results (and hopefully have one of my own written!) the week of February 12th, 2024.

As I’m no good making videos I did the drawing offstage. This time I goofed and was out of town for the draws and didn’t bring my cards! But I had the list and a random number generator, which worked just as well! So, the results were the Nine of Hearts (a Fantasy), the Four of Diamonds (An Empty Gymnasium) and the Seven of Clubs (a Giant Mallet.) So we will write a fantasy set in an empty gymnasium involving a giant mallet.

So, get to writing and I’ll post the results next week! And I’m putting the 2024 Flash Draw sheet at the end of this message, again! (* indicates those have been used.)

Thanks for playing, and I’ll see you next week!

And have fun!

——mike

Flash Draw Sheet for 2024 (“*” indicates prompt has been used.)

Clubs

A A Slippery Slide

2 A Rubber Duck

3 Warm Woolen Mittens

4 A Snow Globe

5 Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers

6 A Pepper Mill

*7. A Giant Mallet

8 A Giant Penny

9 A Box of Rubber Bands

*10 A Grapefruit

J A Cellphone

Q A Dumpster

K A Comic Book

Hearts

A. Science Fiction

2 A Romance

3 Paranormal

4 A Mystery

5 A Thriller

6 An Adventure Story

7. A Bedtime Story

8 A Monster Story

*9 A Fantasy

10 A Horror Story

J A Crime Story

Q A Melodrama

*K A Legend

Diamonds

A A Burger Place

* 2 A Herd of Horses

3 A Roomful of Hats

*4 An Empty Gymnasium

5 The Temple of Diana In Greece

6 A Field of Lettuce

7 A Haunted House

8 A Western Ghost Town

9 A Greenhouse

10 A Giant Teepee

J A Costume Shop

Q A Cake Shop

K An Outdoor Stage

Posted in Monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge | 2 Comments

“Flying Blind” with Rainbow Snippets from Jeff Baker. February 2nd, 2024.

Posted on February 2, 2024 by jeffbaker307
Photo by Ben Mack on Pexels.com

Every week we post six lines from a work of ours, a work-in-progress or published or a recommendation of someone else’s work with at least one LGBT character. Posted at Rainbow Snippets here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/?multi_permalinks=24580559978254066&notif_id=1706917206627636&notif_t=group_activity&ref=notif

Don’t you hate blind dates? This one goes a little crazy! https://authorjeffbaker.com/2017/10/19/flying-blind-blind-date-for-friday-flash-fics-october-20-2017-by-jeff-baker/ Snippets from “Flying Blind,” another story of mine I’d forgotten about!

“Steve!” a voice called from behind me. I turned and saw a tall, reddish-blond guy in jeans and a green sweater climbing the small hill I’d apparently appeared on.

“You’re Steve, right?”

“Yeah,” I said. “You’re Walter, right” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said. He pulled out a revulator and stared at the display. “Any idea where we are?”

“Nope,” I said. “According to this, it’s the twenty-seventh century. Probably.”

“Mine says it’s 1926,” Walter said. “Any idea which of us is right?”

“Nope,” I said, clicking on the display. “At least we homed in on each other.”

A few lines over six but you get the idea! Oh and the “revulator” gadget appears in several of my stories.

Next week, something that shows I like time-travel stories and looooonnnnnng titles!

Till then, ta-ta!—-jeff

Posted in LGBT, Rainbow Snippets | 2 Comments

Meet the Motorcycle Cat For Friday Flash Fics by Jeff Baker. February 2nd, 2024.

Posted on February 2, 2024 by jeffbaker307

Zen And the Art Of the Motorcycle Cat

By Jeff Baker

The late afternoon sun was setting and the garage was cool as Joey fished in his toolbox from his position under the parked motorcycle.

From his perch on the seat of the riding mower the cat looked down on the scene a foot or so away.

“Vroom-Man,” the cat said. “You should…”

“Hey,” the man said, not even looking up. “I told you before, my name’s Joey.”

“Well, I think of you as Vroom-Man,” the cat said. “It’s the Harley.”

Joey let out a fart that vibrated his bluejeaned buttocks against the concrete. Okay, maybe the name did fit, Joey thought.

“Anyway,” the cat said. “the first thing you need to do to fix the engine is…”

“Hey! What is this?” Joey asked. “Zen and the Art of the Motorcycle Cat? I know how to do this!” He started tightening a screw. “I been working on bikes since I was in High School…”

“But you’re doing this one the wrong way,” said the cat. “You need to take the…”

“Nobody likes a backseat driver!” Joey said with a grin.

“You should be grateful,” the cat said. “Ginger, Charlie and Fritz next door wouldn’t help their food-guy like this.”

“Ginger, Charlie and Fritz don’t talk to anybody, remember?” Joey said. “And if they did, Mrs. Appelby wouldn’t listen to them.. She’s too busy stocking up on bleach because they told her to on the radio.”

The cat sighed. “Remember when if you heard someone telling you to do crazy things on the radio it meant you were hearing things?”

“Says the talking cat,” Joey said, pressing the cover of the engine back on with a final twist of a screw.

“I mean it,” the cat said. “Do you know how many of those preppy buckets of dried food she has stored in her basement?”

“Probably a lot I’m guessing…” Joey started to say. “Wait…how do you know?”

“Fritzie, Ginger and Charlie may not talk to people but they talk to me,” the cat said. “She has so many that there’s only room for one litterbox in the basement now. Besides, I look in the windows.” He licked a paw. “Nobody cares when a peeping tom actually is a Tom.”

“Thank you for not describing what you see in her bedroom,” Joey said standing up and pushing the toolbox to the side. “Now, let’s see how this works.”

He hopped on the motorcycle and pushed the pedal.

The motorcycle sputtered and made a clunking sound. Then, nothing.

“Told ya,” the cat said hopping to the floor. “Let’s go in and eat.”

—-end—-

Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, Fritz Leiber, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

Rainbow Snippets “To The Best Of His Ability,” From Jeff Baker, January 26, 2024

Posted on January 26, 2024 by jeffbaker307

January 26th, 2024

Every week we post six lines from a work of ours, a work-in-progress or published or a recommendation of someone else’s work with at least one LGBT character. Posted at Rainbow Snippets here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974

I’d forgotten that for a little while I was actually writing a weekly flash fiction for TWO prompt sites! Monday Flash Fics and the then-new Friday Flash Fics which started in October 2017.

Since it was an inaugural edition, I wrote an Inaugural story. Here’s “To The Best Of His Ability.”  https://authorjeffbaker.com/2017/10/12/friday-flash-fics-inaugural-edition-from-jeff-baker/  We meet Jim and his husband Schuyler on the morning Jim officially starts his new job…

Schuyler Hampton Jones tossed his bowtie on the sofa next to his jacket, pants and shoes.

“As long as I remember where the bathroom is here, we’ll be okay,” he said. He grinned at Jim who had shucked out of his tuxedo and was seated on the floor next to their bed in just his shorts.

“Too bad you didn’t take my advice and wear the top hat,” Jim said.

“Not everybody can pull off the top hat,” Schuyler said, carefully taking off his cufflinks (they had been his father’s) and putting them in a box on the dresser. “J.F.K. did. I think Coolidge or somebody did.”

Okay, one more snippett…

“Don’t forget Armbruster,” Jim said. “He was so preoccupied he kept his top hat on all through the swearing-in.”

“Don’t remind me!” Schuyler said with another grin. “I’m just old enough to remember that!”

“A little before my time,” Jim said. “Besides, Forty-three isn’t old. Not for you!”

“Neither is thirty-seven,” Schuyler said, bending down to kiss Jim.

“You don’t look old and gray,” Jim said.

I stumbled across a couple of flash fiction stories I’d forgotten I’d written while bumming through my blog.

As for the fictional Presidents Armbruster and Norcross (Mentioned in the full story) the first is my creation, the second appeared in a 1960’s superhero cartoon “Super President.”

Next week, a date that goes a little “ca-ca.” —-jeff

Posted in Fiction, LGBT, Rainbow Snippets | 7 Comments

Dive Into “Kenny’s Pool,” But Be Careful! Friday Flash Fics by Mike Mayak. January 26, 2024.

Posted on January 26, 2024 by jeffbaker307

Photo by Steve Di Matteo from Pexels

(Author’s note: Turned it over to my other self ”Mike Mayak” for this week’s story.)

Kenny’s Pool

By Mike Mayak

“Awright. Hey, hand me the towel and I’ll tell you the story. It was back in July of 1961 and I had just turned eighteen. Yeah. I really looked like this. Crew cut, perfect teeth, muscles, tan, worked at the pool. Great Summer job for Kenny Blasco. Coolest music in the world playing over the speaker hooked to the radio. My boss hated all the rock and roll. I wasn’t a lifeguard, I was more a towel boy who helped clean the pool.

I was on the school basketball team and that got me the girls usually. One reason I loved the job; I could bang girls behind the bushes when we weren’t busy and my boss had given me a key to the storeroom which I made a copy of, so I took girls in there at night. Yeah, fun, fun, fun!

Hang on, I’ll grab you a soda. No, we get ‘em free here. Just gotta work a lot. Okay, where was I? Oh, yeah, the girls.

My boss may have known what I was doing, he certainly encouraged me to wear nothing but my swim trunks and flirt. He thought it brought in more customers. I smiled at that. I was a young hunk who was having the time of my life at an age where summer lasted forever.

This girl showed up, looked just like Marilyn Monroe. Blonde, red lips, stacked, the works.

My tight black swimming trunks got tighter when I saw her. She smiled. I was dazzled. I loved to watch her swim. She had me, not Chris or Ricky or Ray towel her off when she got out of the pool. I remember thinking that maybe she had sprayed the hair to look like Monroe. I didn’t know anything about girls’ hair.

So, it was a slow afternoon and the Marilyn girl shows up. She knows my name. She jumps in the pool in this, wow, white one piece swimsuit, and dares me to race her. Well we swam around the pool for a while and she says “I love your arms, Kenny,” and I just grin and my trunks get tight. I ask her what her name is and she says “Nymphette.”

We are floating in the pool then and she grabs my, you know, with one hand and then brushes my lips with a finger and says if I want more she’s going to have to see what a jock I am. She climbs out of the pool and lays down on the diving board (oh, God! Hot!) and tells me to pull myself up to kiss her but I had to agree that I was hers from now on.

Hey, I was Kenny Blasco! I’d made a lot of promises to girls so they’d put out!

So I jumped up, grabbed the board (thinking “You look really good, Kenny!”) and she’s there on the edge of the diving board grinning at me, and I glance down and I’m young, tan and muscular like guys envy me and the music is playing and I pull myself up a little more and we lock lips and I realize she’d just got out of the pool but she wasn’t even wet at all and I feel my lips stuck to hers and my crotch feels like it’s freezing and my fingers go limp and I let go of the board and fall into the pool but the water spreads apart beneath me and I’m falling into air and spinning and I’m screaming and I feel like bristle brushes are hitting my body all over and then I splash down in the pool.

Well, you know, it isn’t the same pool, but trust me, it’s an exact copy. And Nymphette is here. She’s one of the Water Nymphs. I serve her, well, you and I serve her now. Towel her off, do whatever she says. Got no choice.

I stand on the side of the pool and flex my muscles every now and then, when the Nymphs order me to. I liked doing it for girls when I was in High School. But I don’t now that I’m the object of lust.

It’s kinda boring, actually. I mean, you’d think being the, uh, toy of nymphs would be wonderful but it’s for their pleasure. I don’t get pleasure here. Well, not often.

So, that’s pretty much what you can expect here. That and being a towel boy. When did you, I mean, what’s the last year you remember? In the world, I mean?

2458? Wow.

Okay, the only food we get here is cheap snack bar pizza…”

—-end—

Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, Horror, Mike Mayak, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

Pay Attention To “The Li’l Gay Dude” In Rainbow Snippets From Jeff Baker. January 21st, 2024.

Posted on January 21, 2024 by jeffbaker307

Every week we post six lines from a work of ours, a work-in-progress or published or a recommendation of someone else’s work with at least one LGBT character. Posted at Rainbow Snippets here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974

My snippet this week is from my fantasy story “The Li’l Gay Dude.” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2024/01/12/the-lil-gay-dude-friday-flash-fics-from-jeff-baker-for-january-12-2024/#comment-4175 The picture above is of the display that inspired the story and yes, my Brother and I really call it that! Our hero is renting a house with his Brother and going on a series of disastrous dates.

Saturday arrived and I was dressed in my best jeans, a shirt that wasn’t too fancy for a sandwich bar (I hoped) and I headed out the door, giving a glance at the thermometer. 68 degrees. Good. It barely registered with me what the figure was doing.

It registered with Patrick. He took a picture of it with his phone and sent it to me.

The Li’l Gay Dude was standing there frowning, holding out his hand, thumb down.

Okay, snippet two is the post-date post-mortem…

The date went okay, but later that week I found that the guy had two other boyfriends, a girlfriend and a wife in another town. Open relationships I could probably deal with but not this blatant dishonesty.

Thursday at home I sat down on Patrick’s sofa with a bottle of beer and stared at the pic I’d saved on my phone. Had the Li’l Gay Dude had been trying to tell me something? Or was it some kind of glitch in the thermometer?

To my amazement, the original post got more response than any story I’ve posted in quite a while! Next week, the first of a few stories I forgot I wrote! And to borrow from an ancient TV show: “Here’s hoping you get the date you really want.” —–jeff

Posted in LGBT, Rainbow Snippets | 2 Comments

Sit “On The Front Porch” By the Lake for Friday Flash Fics by Jeff Baker. January 19th, 2024.

Posted on January 19, 2024 by jeffbaker307

Photo by James Wheeler off Pexels

On The Front Porch

by Jeff Baker

The music was playing soft and the radio and Doug was sitting on the front porch of his family’s lakeside cabin, watching the Moon reflect in the water when Scotty bounded up the steps.

“Doug!” Scotty said. “I got your message! To meet you here at 9:30. Are you okay?”

Doug smiled. As usual, Scotty looked good. He was wearing slacks, brown shoes and the white button down shirt with no tie. The shirt was sweaty; he’d run from his folks’ cabin.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Doug said. “Just that Mom and Dad and Janie left this afternoon. I’m taking off in my roadster in a couple of days. So we got the cabin to ourselves for a day or so.”

“Yeah?” Scotty said. “So, you want to go inside?”

“Later,” Doug said. “Right now, I want you beside me on this bench, looking at the Moon, the lake, the stars. Listen to the romantic music on the radio.” He paused. “We can hold hands.”

“Sure,” Scotty said, sitting down. He glanced around and kissed Doug on the cheek. Doug squeezed his hand as they settled down on the bench; the radio playing a fake Spanish romantic song.

“This is nice…” Scotty said.

“Yeah,” Doug said. He took a deep breath. “Thank my Mom for the idea, she figured it out. She knows.”

Scotty looked at Doug, shocked.

“Dad and Janie don’t know.” Doug said. “Mom said we ought to take advantage of the front porch in the dark in late summer. She’s okay with us. Being us.”

Scotty waited a few moments and let out a deep breath. “Yeah.”

Doug and Scotty had met in College. They’d hit it off and fallen for each other. But this was just after World War Two, the conflict they had spent on the home front.

After a few more minutes, Doug took a deep breath.

“She said we ought to stay together. I mean, not tell people but just room together.” Doug said. “I mean, I can get you a job at the bank, you have that degree and your experience and nobody else knows. About either of us.”

Scotty looked over at the lake for a moment then turned to look at Doug.

“I snore,” he said. “Runs in my family.”

Doug grinned. “I will love your snoring!”

They kissed sitting there, holding the kiss, feeling each other’s faces with their fingers, the romantic music playing on the radio from inside the house. Music which suddenly segued into a Spike Jones record. Gunshots, Belches, Explosions. All punctuated by an orchestra.

Scotty and Doug broke off the kiss and started laughing, all but collapsing on the bench.

Doug stood up, grabbed Scotty’s arm and pulled him off the bench into his arms.

“I was gonna ask you to slow dance, but we gotta dance to Spike Jones!”

They laughed and bounced around the dark porch, kissing and faking the Jitterbug to the wild, happy radio music.

Janie smiled as she finished reading the browned letter.

“And we always played Spike Jones on our Anniversary,”

Mark and Carlos had stared as she had read the old family letter, the letter she had pulled out after they had told Mark’s Grandma Janie they were going to get married. They had hoped for acceptance, the kind they didn’t get from Carlos’ family.

“And you would have loved your Uncles,” she said. “They were together for just over forty-three years before they passed.”

“I didn’t know, didn’t know ever!” Mark said. “About them, I mean.”

“Well, they didn’t wear it on T-shirts but it wasn’t that secret,” she said. “And they donated to a lot of LGBT causes. What we called Gay Rights back then.” She smiled broadly. “Mark, did you know that your Uncle Scott’s middle name was Mark?”

Mark’s jaw dropped. He hadn’t known.

“So,” Grandma Janie said with a smile. “You take this letter, in this old envelope and someday you read it to some niece or nephew or cousin who needs to hear it.”

Mark carefully set the letter beside them on Grandma’s sofa.

“And never stop loving,” she said. “Never.”

—end—

Posted in Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, Historical Fiction, LGBT, Romance, Short-Stories | Leave a comment