Flash Fiction Challenge 03 June 2012

Subject:  "Drink this..." Flash Fiction Challenge





“Drink this. It’ll make you feel better.”

Carolyn’s shaking hand pulled the tumbler of dark rum closer to her, and she smiled weak thanks at Vinnie.

“Heard you stayed until final call last night.” Vinnie pulled a white towel from his shoulder to wipe clean glasses before stacking them with cacophanous clinking behind the bar.

Carolyn winced at the noise and nodded, dropping her face over the rum to breathe deeply its scent. She stared into it. In five minutes she could feel so much better...warm and blissful...insulated from the gnawing pain in her heart.

Suddenly she pushed off the barstool and headed to the restroom. Vinnie stared after her with a knowing twitch of his lips.

But she didn’t vomit. She stood at the sink, blinking at the bloodshot eyes and unwashed hair in the mirror, finally pulling from the inside pocket of her denim jacket a battered photo of a little girl...a girl with clean pigtails framing clear, bright, trusting grey eyes.

He’d gained sole custody of their daughter and moved across the state after she’d lost her job, when her sense of failure and futility could only find peace at the bottom of a bottle. She couldn’t afford to travel for her allowed visitations and yet...she always found a way to keep the booze flowing.

A vicious squeeze in Carolyn’s chest made her inhale sharply and expell the air in a cracked sob. She clasped a hand over her mouth, looking at the photo, then beyond it to the mirror.

The restroom door creaked shut behind her as she retraced her steps and stood, balefully mesmerized by the dim spectre of her untouched rum.

A moment later she hit the bar’s exit with her whole body, fighting her way out to piercing daylight...and her life.

( 298 words)