To introduce this week’s flash fiction, I’m going to paraphrase the beloved English poet, Mick Jagger:
You can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you deserve.
What (the hell) am I talking about?
Read on!
It came from the girl. The pull was irresistible. She shifted position in her cage, and the chains she wore for market auction clinked.
Kat pressed up to the cage’s bars and stared, drinking in the lank hair, the dusty face and worn clothing of a labourer. The girl’s mouth moved, as if reciting something.
This was the first time Kat would buy servants for her family’s household. It was her present on her 16th birthday, she could by whoever she wanted.
More than anything, she wanted this girl. The handler opened the bidding at 100, half what Kat had, and she needed to buy half a dozen servants. Then the handler, with a quick look over his shoulder, corrected himself: 20. She waited, made herself wait, for the handler to start cajoling. When he was almost pleading, she lifted her purse. He pointed, confirming the offer. The girl’s eyes were on her, her mouth moved. The need pouring off the girl was magnetic. She’d likely not last long. She was barely 10 or maybe 12 under the dirt, but she was her present. Sweat coated her nervous hands when the handler released the girl. Kat took her with her as she bid on the other servants they needed: a man for outside, two girls for the kitchen, a woman for laundry, and a boy to serve her father, who hated that women so outnumbered him in his own home. The girl would be Kat’s servant once she’d find out how to stop the girl’s move mouth moving. The girl stood respectfully behind Kat. The breath from her mouth made Kat uncomfortable.
Her family remarked on the similarity between the servants Kat had bought, and congratulated her, like she had displayed great judgement in purchasing a matching set. And there was something forceful about them. They would last a long time.
If only they’d stop whispering.
See you next wee—
You’e back to the weird stories again, are you?
You found it weird?
We found you weird!
Thank you! That’s probably because you’re normal.
That wasn’t a compliment.
Correct! See you next week.
(Both parties exit the stage, muttering under their breath)
