Iain Kelly

Agnes loves Christmas.

As soon as they finish forking out a small mountain of sweets to the trick-or-treaters at Halloween, Agnes starts her Christmas build-up.

It starts small. A few ‘extra’ items in the supermarket shop: a decoration here; a little snack food there. Then wrapping paper, cards, presents.

Before November is out, Archie is sent to the loft to fetch the decorations.

The tree and lights will go up on the first of December, but they must have snow to accompany them. This year, there’s a problem.

‘It’s global warming,’ Agnes huffs, ‘it ruins everything.’

So here Archie is, spraying his front lawn with fake snow, while the neighbours look on with glee at his travails.

Agnes comes downstairs the next morning to find Archie still sitting at the breakfast table.

‘Why haven’t you left for work?’ she asks, concern for her quiet day of Christmas decorating growing.

‘Can’t,’ says Archie. ‘Car’s snowed in.’

And he takes a long sip from his morning coffee and settles down by the warm fire.

Written as part of Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers. The challenge is to write a flash fiction story or poem in around 175 words, based on the weekly photo prompt. Thanks as always to the challenge hosts Priceless Joy and Joe. For more information visit HERE.

To read other stories based on this week’s prompt, visit HERE.

You can read more stories featuring Agnes and Archie here: THE AGNES AND ARCHIE STORIES.

My new novel, ‘A Justified State,’ is now available on Amazon in Paperback and on Amazon Kindle.

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