May 2024 Flash Fiction Contest Winner
We meet by chance when you joined our company. You were so different and the desk that separated us felt like shoreless sea. Why you never cared about your outlook, fashion, and chitchat during the lunch break? Why you never tried to fit in? You made me really angry when you sat alone but deeply inside, I admired your courage. I wished that just for once, I could stop caring too, but I am a coward. I am so afraid of being alone. Even if all those faceless people just fill the emptiness around me, I cannot imagine my world without them. It is a fair deal. We are "friends." With them, my phone and TV, I manage to push my loneliness away. And I know they do the same...but you were different...and I hated it. I was busy that day, too busy for lunch. I let my "friends" to go without me. I just had too much to do...You came to my desk with a cup of caffe and a sandwich and a smile. For long I wondered why you did this? I never believed your "you looked really hungry." Why then? You never cared about those unspoken contracts that bound people to be nice and slowly fill emptiness around you. You wern't like this...then why?
It was a rainy day. I took my courage and shared my umbrella with you. Now, your daughter calls me "mom."
Bio
Mara (they/them) is an autistic and queer writer. For as long as they remember, they have loved to make stories, build fantastical worlds, and spend most of their time there. They never saw themself represented in any of the books they read, and it made them wonder if something was wrong with them. They say that if we don't see ourselves in the stories we read, we somehow don't exist. Years later, with the encouragement of their partner, they started to write the stories they always wanted to read when they were younger.
You can read more of Mara's work on Neobook at https://neobook.org/uykxs3llt0/ or listen to their readings on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@maratellsstories.
Image Description: Two women stand under an umbrella facing one another. They are in professional, black dresses. The taller woman's hair is styled in a short, black bob. the shorter woman's hair is styled in a short, gray bob. They stand on a city street with rain falling all around them.
Credit: Image created by Mara
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