Friday Flash Fiction

Welcome to Friday Flash Fiction!

I think I'm going to try and make this a regular, weekly column here at I Must Be Remembering The Future. The idea being that I will write a short little story no more than 1,000 words, during the week and post it here for your enjoyment on Friday. Plus, it makes for great alliteration. We'll see how this works out.

For my first entry, I'm going to post the story that won me this week's 5 Minute Fiction, a weekly writing contest hosted by the lovely Leah Petersen. Check it out at her blog here:

http://www.leahpetersen.com/

And now, onto the story!

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Lad

David looked at the lad across the street. He’s seen him before, looking very much like some street waif from a Dickens novel. He was always eye catching, the large coat, pie hat and the fingerless gloves, standing on the bridge, looking over the Themes. David sighed. The lad always looked so sad, big eyes red as if they had been crying. This time, he was determined to find out who the boy was. He got off the bus and walked across the bridge to where he saw the lad, but when he got there, the boy was gone.

“Excuse me,” he said to a young girl that was playing stones with her friends. “Excuse me, lass, did you happen to see a boy here? With a coat and a hat?”

“Oh, yes,” she said, excited. “The one with the gloves what ain’t got no fingers on ‘em?”

David nodded. The other children stopped playing and looked up, excitement shining in their eyes as well.

“Do you know him?” he asked.

“Oh, no,” she said, suddenly turning serious. “Well, not really. We just see him every day, and he does the same thing.”

“And what’s that?” David asked.

“Well, he jumps,” the girl said, as if it were obvious.

“Jumps? Where?”

“Why, into the river, o’ course.”

“What?” David said shocked, running to the edge of the railing at the bridge. He didn’t see anything down there but water.

“Oh yes,” she said as if she were talking about the weather. “He does it every day. Funny, ain’t many adults that see ‘em. Just us kids, normally.”

“What are you saying?” David asked, the truth beginning to dawn on him.

“Well, he’s a ghost, innit he?”