Photo by Hamid Khaleghi on Unsplash
by Gary Fincke
Headlights are a mile away. ICU is a short story for the unlucky. Long-term care is an idea planted by bloodless insurance agents.
Her car faces home, the same direction as the headlights that are blocks away now, nothing that she notices. The stoplights she crosses between both reflect red on the panes of the block’s parentheses of post office and bank, court house and church.
The first murmur will be locks opening as, mid-avenue, she presses the fob, the flicker of her car’s headlights simultaneous with a flood of brilliance, the night still muted, her thumb poised as if pause is possible, alterations replaced by a scenario slowed to safety.
Gary Fincke’s latest flash collection is The History of the Baker’s Dozen (Pelekinesis 2024). His newest book is After Arson: New and Selected Stories (Madville Press 2025). He is co-editor of the annual anthology Best Microfiction.
