This is my belated entry to Rochelle’s weekly Fiction Challenge. A hundred words to write a story with the picture prompt she provides. Thank you to PHOTO PROMPT © JS Brand for This week’s picture.
Something wonderful has happened this week. As a result of all your comments, I’ve tweaked my flash, because I realised I’d given the completely wrong idea of Alica and Billy’s relationship. I know them so well, I forget readers might not remember or have read previous flashes. Each flash should be able to stand on its own. I need to remember that, so here are both flashes, the old one, Checkmate and the new one The Miracle.
Thank you for letting me know your thoughts. It helps me improve my writing.
‘Checkmate’
Billy moved his bishop and sighed. ‘Checkmate.’
Alice pouted. ‘It’s about time. I won the last three games.’
‘Who cares?’ He said setting the pieces back on the board. ‘I just like watching you plan and execute your moves.’
Alice felt a knot rise up her throat. ‘It’s a miracle that you’re my best friend, Billy.’
His brow furrowed. ‘I wouldn’t be anyone else’s best friend, not ever.’
‘But suppose I had been born in a third world country, thousands of miles away, in a poor, illiterate family…’
‘You’re such a bad loser, Alice. That’s why I always let you win.’
****
The Miracle
Billy moved his bishop. ‘Checkmate.’
Alice smiled. ‘It’s about time. I won the last three games.’
‘Who cares?’ He smiled setting the pieces back on the board. ‘I just like watching you plan and execute your moves.’
Alice felt a knot rise up her throat. ‘It’s a miracle that you’re my best friend, Billy.’
His brow furrowed. “A miracle?”
‘Suppose I had been born in a third world country, thousands of miles away, and lived on an old boat…”
He squeezed her hand “It’s a miracle I won and I wouldn’t be anyone else’s best friend, not ever.”
She kissed his cheek. “Rematch?”
All my ‘Alice’ flash fiction stories, written for the Friday Fictioneers Challenge, can be read as standalones, but if you’d like to read previous stories of Alice’s adventures, here they are!
Rereading Jane Eyre 
Dear Luccia,
They’re playing chess while Kevin is still missing??? Seriously I like this. Says a lot about the two of them in a few words.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thank you, Rochelle.
Oh dear, poor Kevin… I’m jumping around timewise here! I need to get back to finding Kevin. Perhaps next week’s prompt will inspire me…
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If Alice pouts at winning all the time, Billy’s strategy of letting her win is not a great one. Or is he saving face?
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Thanks for visiting and commenting, Neil. Who knows? Perhaps you’re right.
I think he’s trying to cheer her up and let her know that he’ll always be there for her and try to do what he thinks is best for her, not for him, because she’s his best friend, and he loves her too!
She’s having a hard time with her family and she has plenty of hang ups and insecurities. He’s the stronger, more stable of the two, at the moment.
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Alice better change her attitude… Billy might get tired of it!
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He won’t! 😂 He knows she’s The One for him!
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😁
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I love your Alice stories 🙂 This one is particularly poignant, I think.
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Thank you. Alice values Billy’s support and friendship, but she’s also terrified of losing him, or in this case of never having met him…
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Nobody likes a bad loser, Billy might be being too understanding and Alice better watch her attitude!
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Don’t be too hard on Alice😂 She would do anything for Billy and she values his friendship, which is why she’s terrified of the thought of never having met him…
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The emotional dynamics of this relationship feel perilous. The better possibility is that Billy is bragging, and Alice is actually near enough a match for him at chess. On the other hand, if Billy really is so superior, to let Alice win and then let her know that he’s done so verges on the behaviour patterns of an abuser, constantly emphasising his strengths and her weaknesses. Not sure I like Billy!
Why don’t they play a game where they’re more evenly matched?
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By the way, thanks to your comments I’ve tweaked my flash, because my idea obviously wasn’t coming across. I’d love to know what you think now 🙂
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Thank you for your comment, Penny:) I love the way these characters illicit strong feelings. They’ve been with me for a year now as part of Friday Fictioneers, so I feel very close to them, but I enjoy reading your interpretations. My take is that Alice is better at chess than Billy, he’s joking about letting her win. He just wants to lighten her mood. She’s feeling melancholy, when she worries about the possibility of never having met him. Her grandmother whom she was close to died, her dad has disappeared and her mother’s a wreck. She’s a teenager with plenty of insecurities and Billy has been her best friend since childhood. That’s a lot to put into 100 words… I need to think about that in future instalments.
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So clever who the smallest of changes makes these two stories so different. They are both so strong and develop your characters and their relationship clearly.
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Thank you, Sarah.
Flash fiction is definitely helping me to develop and improve as a writer, especially by paying attention to the relevance of each word, in my own writing and by reading flash fiction written by others.
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