In a workshop recently with the great flash writer, Jude Higgins, we were prompted to list some mundane things from our life. When we had a list, we picked a couple and wrote about them. One of my items was bathing in a bucket and this is the flash piece that came from it.
The news
No estimate on the return of the water, the mayor says on CBC. The sound is tinny, and the mayor’s voice drags, tired and slow in contrast with the newscaster who talks fast, almost breathlessly, over a roll of pictures of the devastation of your town. You can’t see his face, your mayor, because you’re in the kitchen, bathing from a bucket with a dish towel draped over the kitchen window because you never bothered to put up a curtain. Thousands without water or heat, the major says from the living room and since you’re not there to switch it off, the news moves on to another story as people always do.
Finnian Burnett 