The Scrapbook And The Man In The Black Fedora (flash fiction)

by Stephen J Frankenberry

So another prompt at dVerse Poets …

It’s Monday and, at the dVerse Poets Pub, we are writing Prosery, the very short piece of prose or flash fiction that tells a story with a beginning, middle and end. It can be in any genre of your choice, but it does have a limit of 144 words; an additional challenge is to hit 144 exactly. The special thing about Prosery is that we give you a complete line or two from a poem, which must be included somewhere in your story, within the 144-word limit.

The complete line or two in this case are from Leonard Cohen and his poem “Take this Waltz” with the lines being …

And I’ll bury my soul in a scrapbook,
with the photographs there and the moss

.

The Scrapbook And The Man In The Black Fedora

“Hey Jaimie, check this out, just found this covered in moss behind a tree”

Presents a tattered book with dead flowers pinned to it and a warning “DO NOT OPEN”

“Well, let’s see what’s in it”

“It says not to open Billy”

“C’mon, probably just a note left by the 11 year old girl who lost it. It looks like a scrapbook”

“I don’t know, it doesn’t feel right”

Billy opening the scrapbook finds it filled with photo’s of people and notations of the date/time of their deaths and scribbled inside the cover …

And I’ll bury my soul in a scrapbook,
with the photographs there and the moss

At that moment a man in a black fedora appeared.

The air stilled.

Then Billy was gone and all Jaimie caught as the fedora’d man closed the scrapbook was a quick glimpse of Billy’s picture.

16 thoughts on “The Scrapbook And The Man In The Black Fedora (flash fiction)”

  1. I love that Leonard Cohen has a cameo in your Prosery piece, Stephen, with his trademark black fedora. Your story reminded me a little of Stephen King and a lot of Anthony Horrowitz, especially his short story ‘Killer Camera’. I really enjoyed it.

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  4. This is a very unique telling of a story. Great example of flash fiction, film like and with a warning. That scrapbook has temptation written all over it and meeting your maker too, the man with the fedora! And i want to know what happens next to Jaime.

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