I Can't Possibly Be Wrong All the Time

It’s the first of July, 2021 , so I went through my social media feeds and grabbed all of the MicroStories I’d tweeted during the month of June.

As a reminder, these represent story-essences composed using no more than 269 characters (so I could tweet them with the hashtag #MicroStory.)

Usually, I only tweet Science Fiction and Fantasy #MicroStories. June was no exception.

For really great #MicroStory action, please follow @MicroSFF, the Twitter account that inspired me to participate in this minimalist writing exercise. That feed puts out great science fiction and fantasy MicroStories all the time.

(I want to make it clear that @MicroSFF is *not* a Twitter account of mine. Their flash-fiction tweets are excellent. Mine are okay.)

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Seeing the old orbiter passing in front of a full moon always made my dad a little happy and a little sad. Once, when it was visible against the smaller moon, I asked my dad if the ship would always be above.
“No,” he replied. “One day it’ll be gone. Like home.”
#MicroStory

My time-traveling guest enjoyed the burrito I’d made for him, but was unsatisfied with my suspect explanation on how microwave ovens worked.
“Oh, and I guess you can explain time travel to me?”
“It’s easy. I just sacrifice an animal to Kronos and pray really hard.”
#MicroStory

“Well done, warrior. That’s two of the three challenges defeated.”
The swordsman wiped his blade clean of the dragon’s blood. “What’s next, wizard?”
“The last challenge will be a monster formed from every insect you’ve ever killed.”
“Nope.”
“Wha-“
“NOPE”
#MicroStory

They say that you can’t go home again, that it’ll be too changed to feel like home.
But often the reasons you left in the first place remain.
Like the old house with the pale figure in the window that only you can see.
#MicroStory

The note began:
“We have the Girl With Spiders In Her Hair. If our demands –
– “I stopped reading after that.
The Girl With Spiders In Her Hair would no doubt have an unbelievable adventure story to tell me tomorrow, and I didn’t want to read spoilers.
#MicroStory

“I’ll be around,” he said as I pressed the button.
This was the second time within a week that I’d been ordered to eject this guy out of the station airlock. Before I did it a third time, I supposed I should ask some questions first.
#MicroStory

The project was suspended, not because the new robots were performing poorly in the simulations – the therapy sessions really helped with that. But therapy made the robots too human for most military applications.
#MicroStory

Dr. Scorpius died at the epicenter of the global event, but his secret lair was well suited as an emergency shelter. Even his murderbots were agreeable to supporting disaster relief efforts.
No one in town questioned how dad knew of the lair’s location.
#MicroStory

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Thank you to everyone who reads and enjoys my small stories. I tweet flash-fiction at irregular intervals on my Twitter account, @patman23. At more regular intervals on Twitter, I’ll be talking about my dogs, or television (mostly Game of Thrones), or complaining about raking leaves off of my lawn.

Header image was taken by me, with a cicada resting on my wife’s hat during a walk in the park. June was Hot Cicada Summer month.

Want to read my earlier MicroStory collections? I have my first three years’ worth of stories HERE and the second three years’ worth of stories HERE

In general, I’m fine with anyone using the text of my MicroStories for non-commercial use. (Look how cute I am, thinking someone wants to make a t-shirt from one of my flash fiction bits. I say cute, but you can substitute in some other, more appropriate, adjective. I’m not the boss of you.)

© Patrick Sponaugle 2021 Some Rights Reserved