Anthony's Flash Fiction Story

Anthony Mauriello

World Lit. Honors/3

Bennett

Flash Flood

            “We interrupt your normally scheduled programming to warn you that flash floods are occurring throughout Lorain country. If you live in the cities of Avon Lake, Westlake, Avon…” the man on the TV said.

Why did he have to interrupt my show? It didn’t matter what he said, no floods had ever happened in Avon Lake that I could remember, so why would that change now? Besides, the men on TV got the weather wrong all the time, so they were wrong about this too. They had to be. Besides, didn’t it have to rain a ton for there to be a flood? I can’t even remember it raining more than a few inches at a time in my entire life, there was no way that was going to change now.

My cat started kneading my leg, as if to remind me she was there. I scratched just behind her ears the way she liked to get her to calm down. She could be pretty needy sometimes for a cat, but I didn’t mind. We were always together. I probably played with her than with any of my other friends in first grade.

            Finally, my show is back on: Justice League. I never got up early enough in the morning to watch it when the new episodes first premiered, and when they came back on at 7:00 mom was always watching something on TV and never let me choose the show, almost as if she knew I wanted to watch it and didn’t let me for just that reason. I certainly wasn’t going to let some stupid weatherman or whatever he was on TV keep me from watching it.

            “We need to stop Luthor before it’s too late!” Superman commanded of his team.

            Great! How much time had that jerk on TV made me loose? What was going on? When did Lex Luthor even get here? What had he done this time? What characters were going to help fight Luthor in this episode? God, the first time in months that mom left me home alone and I finally had time to watch my show, I miss the entire beginning of the episode because some guy on TV thinks a flood will happen. It never has and never will! Not here at least.

All of the sudden I noticed that I could see my breath in front on me. When had it gotten so cold? I had been outside this morning, and it had been warm enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt. That seems strange. Whatever, there were blankets upstairs.

Before I even began to get up, my cat suddenly bolted off of my lap with an annoyed hiss and ran upstairs. That was weird; she always went downstairs when her food and litter box where, what did she want upstairs? Whatever, not my problem. I just need to get the blanket from upstairs as fast as possible and get back down here so that I don’t miss anymore time.

            As I got up from the couch to get a blanket, I saw the window for the first time. A surge of paranoia hit me; what if that guy on TV was right, what if there was a flood? What would I do? Mom had told me that she would be gone all night, having dinner with friends or something stupid, and that I shouldn’t call her. Calm down, I told myself, you are being ridiculous. Like you said, it had never happened here, and it never will, the man on the TV is just wrong like he is about the weather the rest of the time.

            I looked out the window. I let out a loud sigh of relief. Just as I suspected: no flood. Like I said, all those stupid guys on TV always get this stuff wrong.

            I brought the blanket from my room downstairs to have on the couch with me. I didn’t even look out the window as a passed by, but I suddenly slipped on water pooled on the floor. Where had that come from? I’m sure that wasn’t there before! That was when I looked out the window.

            The water was all the way to the top of the window, and leaking in through a crack! When had this happened? What was I going to do? No one had ever told me what to do if there was a flood so high you couldn’t even open the front door, and I wasn’t going to find an instruction manual for this situation anywhere.

            As I’m trying to think this through the first crack appears in the window, and continues to grow every second. This wasn’t going to end well, I thought.