Then Came The Wind

Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.

The prompts: This story must contain the words: emergency, lock and bright

Then Came the Wind

Karen had just switched the channel to Oprah. The women in her salon loved that show and if they were happy, Karen was happy. She looked around and felt the same satisfaction she always felt when her chairs were full.

After little more than a year, her hair salon was a success. There had been failures before but those were all behind her now. The bad marriage was history. So was one job as a waitress/pole dancer and another as a receptionist at the Happy Ending Massage Parlor.

She’d worked hard to put herself through cosmetology school. Scraping and borrowing money to get her salon going was yet another challenge she had met and overcome.

Now the chairs were full and Oprah was in the air. To top it all off, she was having dinner tonight with the nice man that owned the dry cleaners next door.

Her life was good and filled with happy anticipation.

Everything changed when Oprah blinked off the air to be replaced by an Emergency Broadcast.

It was the president. He got right to the point with, “My fellow Americans, we are at war.”

Every head turned to the set in unison as the salon switched from hustle and bustle to silent disbelief.

“Everyone should immediately shelter in place,” he continued.

The broadcast was cut off; replaced by fuzz.

One scissor cut through a lock of hair as the hand holding it involuntarily spasmed shut. No one moved and then… everyone moved. There was screaming and crying as women scrambled to do something – anything.

Karen ignored the chaos and walked silently to the front window that faced the city across the bay. She watched a skyline become a fireball.

“It’s so bright,” she thought, “So bright.”

Then came the wind.

Word count 300