Wednesday - A Flash Fiction Piece

(Josie Sayz: This is a flash fiction piece from Wednesday at work. I am loving AI. I can quickly write out a piece of fiction on a scrap piece of paper and it can translate it into text in seconds. It is incredible and saves me so much time.)

A thumping pounded in her head, as Jane approached the manufacturers' department. Carrying the next day's work instructions in her arms, the heavy, fuzzy head, that had plagued Jane's mind for the past few, intensified.

The floor changed from slate grey, with specs of glitter, to intense royal blue, with a sandcastle yellow outlining the walkway. The floating fluorescent lighting beamed down far brighter in the manufacturing wing of the building than in the offices upstairs. An intense roar from the fans up above, as they oscillate, overpowered Jane's ears. Her shoulders tensed. Her eyes squinted, as she adjusted to the change in atmosphere.

A fluorescent yellow blur caught her eye. The sudden movement caused Jane to stop. Swinging his right arm back, the manufacturing supervisor flung his highly visual vest off and stuffed it in the wheelie bin beside his workstation. A frown furrowed Jane's brow. The supervisor swiped his backpack, from under the table and threw it on his back, as he raced towards the clocking in machine. As the lines on Jane's forehead deepened, she spun on her heels to glance up at the clock above the doorway.

‘There's five minutes left of the day yet,’ Jane observed, as the hands of the clock pointed to five-to-four. Turning back around, Jane fumbled with the paperwork in her arms, as she pressed into her digital fitness tracker. The screen lit up. 15:55. 'At least some of us here remember how to work,' Jane murmured to herself. With a new found vigour in her step, the red head marched down the production line and handed out tomorrow's paperwork, exchanging small pleasantries with each colleague along the way.

With the manufacturing supervisor leading by example, as soon as Jane had handed out the last of the paperwork, the manufacturers all grabbed their bags and began making their way towards the clocking in machine. As the warehouse employee made his way to the back of the queue, Jane approached him. "Is Abs okay?" she whispered.

"I dunno," came the reply with a shrug. "He wasn't interested in speakin' t' anyone today. Just kept sayin' he's tired."

The time on the clocking in machine changed to 16:00. With a press of his thumb Abs clocked out and raced through the door. "Jane," hissed the warehouse colleague. A puzzled pucker lined her brow, as Jane watched her colleague jerk his head towards the wheelie bin. Taking a hesitant step towards him, Jane neared the wheelie bin. Her eyes flickered inside and lingered upon the fluorescent vest, before looking back up at her colleague, who had a huge, wide-eyed grin on his face. “Watched ‘im throw it in. Don’t look like he’s comin’ back tomorrow.” Pinching her lips in, a small glow spread across Jane’s cheeks. “Don’t you start,” warned her friend, before they both began chuckling. “We can live in hope.”

 

- Josie -

Dream - 06.07.2026

(Josie Sayz: This was a dream that I had a few nights ago now about a person who I loved so very much. I still do love him. One of the hardest things is knowing that the best thing for me was to not be with him, because the mental abuse was slowly killing me. I know that I am mentally better without the mind games, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t still love and miss all of the good, wonderful times. This piece is incredibly bittersweet. The dream made me incredibly happy, but I was heartbroken all over again. I will always have a very special place in my heart for him.)

A tingling warmth wrapped around her. A soft, happy hum escaped her. Inhaling, the familiar, sweaty, yet cosy, scent caused the tension in her shoulders to melt away, for the first time in a long while. As she flickered open her eyes, a warmth prickled her cheeks. A shy smile prodded into the right corner. A warm tingling fluttered into her chest. The weight of two comforting arms wrapped around her. Her fingers grazed the stubble at the back of his head, as she traced a comforting stroke across the back of his neck. Brushing her nose against his ear, the black stud in his earlobe confirmed that it truly was him. She was safe. She was loved. Giving him a tight squeeze, a shaky exhale escaped her, as the inner corners of her eyes began to sting. His chuckle caused her to sniff a little squeak and she buried her head in the crook of his neck. "I missed you," his soft voice whispered into her hair.

"I missed you too," she cried, squeezing him tighter.

- Josie -

Life's Hard, But I Am Writing

I am still struggling with missing my ex and hating how he changed into the person that he said he wouldn’t and became mentally abusive. The past few weeks have been an emotional yoyo. I keep going from being okay, to crying hysterically at my desk, to feeling like I can get through the day but being very fragile, to hating everyone and wanting to be on my own, to missing the old/nice him so much that I can’t concentrate.

Today, however, I forced my thoughts to concentrate and spill all of my fragile and yoyoing energy into a teeny, tiny little early Arcturus High #2 paragraph. It isn’t polished or edited and I haven’t even completed all of the dialogue sentence parts, but I needed to try to prove to myself that I can still write…

 

“Caitlyn, may I have a word outside?” Mr Penn announced to the room. Caitlyn’s head shot up. Her eyes widened, as she sniffed a sharp inhale. Looking towards Mr Penn, Caitlyn gave a small nod, as she rose from her seat to follow her teacher toward the back of the classroom. As she shuffled past Lyra, Caitlyn’s line of sight was drawn to Fabian, who plonked himself back down in his seat.

“What did Mr Penn want?” Pete asked him. Sensing Caitlyn’s stare, Fabian looked up. Their eyes met. He gave Caitlyn a soft smile. A warmth prickled in her chest and Caitlyn felt her cheeks begin to burn. She shuddered out of her thoughts just in time to avoid bumping into Carlos, who was waving his arms around.

“I failed my Chemistry test,” she heard Fabian tell his friends. “Mr Penn was just giving me extra homework.”

“You failed?” exclaimed Oscar in disbelief. “But you’re the smart one. What hope have the rest of us got if you failed Mr Penn’s test?”

“I dunno, I guess it was just harder than I thought.” Fabian’s voice faded into the background of the Naeniam Exponentia’s experiment chatter.

            Lowering her head, Caitlyn made her way outside of Mr Wye’s music classroom and into the corridor. A lump formed in her throat. “I’m sorry,” she blurted out, looking up at Mr Penn. “I was too harsh on Bentley, wasn’t I? I didn’t mean to; it’s just he wasn’t being careful and-”

“You’re not in trouble, Caitlyn,”

“Sir, I’m really sorry, I-”

“I said, you’re not in trouble, Caitlyn.”

 

- Josie -