Two kids, pre-teens, full of sass, skinny as fawns. They just walk over and grab my bag. I hang on. Everything slows, my shocked blood, the street hum, the handle’s rip.
Balloons, candles, party poppers and favours, rainbow out, feather-light. As they land, time speeds back up like someone turned a dial.
One kid bends to the bright packets, something in his face I don’t want to see. I can’t stop this crazy pant-laugh. He picks out the tiny wind-up shoes, the kind that keep walking. Into walls, off the edges of things. He stuffs them in his pocket. Runs.
Ali McGrane is the author of novella-in-flash, The Listening Project (Ad Hoc Fiction, 2021). She has stories in Splonk, Fictive Dream, Gone Lawn and elsewhere. Her work has been variously nominated and shortlisted, including for the Bath Flash Fiction Award. Find her @alimcg.bsky.social and alimcgrane.com
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