My anger speaks, saying to whoever has wronged me through ignorance or error, especially through enforcing an unconscionable policy, especially when such policy is imagined or illegal, to you it says this:

I know your behavior is your honest best, and that you are upholding some “higher purpose,” like keeping your job or licking the boot on all our faces (or something) and yet, you have erred, you are wrong, and that wrongness hurts me. As such, I do not accept your apology, and I disagree when you say there’s nothing you can do because I can think of several things you just won’t do. When you wish me a nice day, I can only take it as insincere because your actions are simultaneously making my day worse.

I wanted to share some drabbles I’ve written for a writing club. The premise is, you get a prompt, 2-3 words, and you write a piece of fiction that is exactly 100 words long.

Here goes!

Destruction

Ladies, gentlemen, thank you for coming to this ribbon-cutting, or, more accurately, switch-throwing ceremony. Although to be even more accurate, we’re just going to type a command into this workstation – this humble, normal-looking workstation, but behind it, so much glorious technology!

This is a revision of a flash fiction piece first posted in 2018.

After a year of talking, and another year of planning, the project was complete. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the local clergy, and the town council had finally done it: Right in the town square, they installed a giant loudspeaker. From thenceforth, every two minutes, a booming voice would spread all over town, announcing:

ARE YOU SURE?

Foolhardy decisions, they had decreed, would soon be a thing of the past.

TRIBUNAL PROCEEDING TRANSCRIPT
SUB LEGIBUS ORDINIS SACROSANCTI IMMORTALIUM
PROVISIONAL PROOF TEXT

IN THE CASE OF:
ŌRDŌ SACROSANCTUS VERSUS THE NAMELESS DAUGHTER OF MUŠMAḪḪU THE SEVEN-HEADED SERPENT, SHE WHO IS KNOWN TO THE MORTALS AS EUNICE

LORD JUSTICE MEPHISTO, PRESIDING
LORD JUSTICE DRACHENMILCH, LORD JUSTICE BA’AL-HA-KHUMUS, AND LORD LADY JUSTICE XYXXYZ

MR. AZAXAZALIA, ESQ., PROSECUTOR
MS. “EUNICE”, DEFENDANT

A RECORD OF EUNICE‘S TESTIMONY
TRANSCRIBED BY GEORGE SMITH, HUMAN, JUNIOR APPRENTICE CLERK
COURTROOM 31B, NO OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE

In front of Penny in line was a 7 foot tall humanoid with glowing blue skin. She suppressed the urge to ask what species they were, and let the alien order their vegan breakfast burrito. The barista at United Planets’ first-floor Starbucks looked human except for the extra hands. Polycherian, Penny remembered. When the barista handed Penny her order – an egg and cheese sandwich on a bagel – Penny bowed respectfully and said pflintsu – Polycherian for “thank you” – before getting on the elevator.

ENVELOPE HEADER:
Date:      January 5, 2027
To:        Rachel Friedman, President of the United States and Leader of the Free World
From:      The Roots of the Great Trees of Galaxy-Wide Civilization
Subject:   An Offer, an Apology, and an Explanation

The Offer

In the name of the One Almighty God: in the name of the Many Stars through which God is made manifest, in the name of the manifestation of God you call the Sun, and in the name of Original Star from Before Time, we offer you peace, not of a lack of conflict, but of a mutual growth. As branches must look to the vine for sustenance, so must you look towards us, as your own scriptures say, being a reflection of the truth.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the local clergy, and the town council had been planning this concept for over a year. Finally they did it: Right in the town square, they installed a giant loudspeaker. From thenceforth, every two minutes, a booming voice would spread all over town, announcing “Are you sure?”

Foolhardy decisions, they had decreed, would soon be a thing of the past.

The locals seemed to adapt pretty readily. Sales of noise-cancelling headphones boomed for a bit, and people’s sleeping habits were surprisingly unaffected – who notices slightly inferior sleep? And drunk driving statistics were immediately better, which the local paper celebrated triumphantly.