August 3 ‘25. That means it day three of Flash August Fiction. That’s how you can tell, by which day of the month it is. Thanks for reading, sharing, listening and restacking.
Three crickets in a kitchen are having a debate.
“I really want to get up and see what that echo is from.” says one.
“Do you think you can get up there?” The next asks.
“I see other guys get up there all the time.” He answers.
The third Cricket inquires, “What do they say it’s coming from?”
“I don’t know, I never asked, I think it must be pretty good though, because they tend to stay once they’re there.”
“That’s interesting.” Says Cricket 3. “Maybe we should try something. Perhaps you should get yourself up to that area where the echo is, then tell us about it from there, you know? Yell down to us what it’s about, then we’ll come up and meet you.”
“This is exciting” says the second Cricket, “I feel like we’re on a mission. I’ll be the liaison guy. I’ll go half way there and relay the events while you’re doing the reconnaissance.”
“Ok, let’s see if I can get up there.” Says Cricket 1. He bounces, trying to reach a shelf, but on the first try he careens over and smacks the wall. “Dang it!” He shouts, and the sound can be heard throughout the home.
On the second try, he makes it, but now he finds himself atop a row of cookbooks with not a lot of room to move. The third Cricket informs him that to his right, there is a protruding cookbook, where when he reaches it, he can easily hop up to the top of the counter. “Just move over to your right, my left, then you can get a clear path.” He says. And the adventurous cricket number one does just that, he hops, precariously as crickets do, safely up to the counter and has a clear, easily skittered path to the source of the echo.
“OK” says the second cricket. “Let me get up there, and we’ll have a little confab, and make the plan.” He makes several erratic leaps, and he finds himself on a chair 2 feet away from the plateau, kind of far from where the first cricket waits for him. “How the heck did get over here!” He exclaims, his sound resonating in the kitchen.
Again, he makes a wild leap toward his friend, and this time he lands on a towel, hanging from a drawer handle. He scurries to the peak of it, and makes a bounce, right up there, pretty close to his friend.
“How are you guys doing up there!” Cricket three shouts from the floor.
“I’ll bet you wish you were up here now, don’t ya!” Says cricket 2.
“We’ll see, I guess.” He responds from below.
Cricket 2 confers with the first Cricket. “It seems like the echoing always comes from that other side of these things.” He’s referring to a rack of dishes, set out to air dry, overnight.
“I guess I have to try and see if I can make that.” Says Cricket 1.
He makes his best bound, and he flails and flips, over the dishes, and disappears. “What the crap!” He yells, and there is a resonating and the sound is musical, the cavernous echo fills the kitchen with high, and amber tones, it’s operatic to the other two.
“Where’d he go!” The other two crickets shout in unison.
“What the heck do we do?” Says Cricket 2.
“M… maybe you should go look for him? Maybe I’ll see if I can climb something out here and see if I can see him from a better vantage point?”
“OK!” Says the heroically inspired second cricket. He makes his try and smacks into the bottom of the cupboards, then spasticly springs up again, bouncing off the top of a glass; and then joins cricket 1 in the curious catacomb, together their sounds are mystical, spreading out into the night in waves.
“You guys sound amazing! Wherever you are!” Says Cricket 3. “What's it looking like where you are? What do you see?” He calls to them from below, as he eyes the kitchen table, thinking he might have a better view from there.
“It’s dark, and there’s a hole in the bottom with food all over it, the surface is annoying and slippery.” Says Cricket 1.
“But we’re going to eat before we hop out.” Says cricket 2.
Cricket 3 makes a jump from the ground and gets to a chair, then, from there, he is able to get to the table-top after a couple of tries. He flits over to the edge of the table, where he can see the other side of the rack of dishes, and from his vantage, it’s merely a horizontal line, same as the plateau of the counter top. “I can’t see into there you guys, you OK?”
They indicate that they are fine, and not yet full of whatever they’re licking off of the bottom of the barrow.
Just then, a light is on and there is a woman walking toward the deep, stainless steel kitchen sink. Cricket three jumps down from the table and takes off to a crack in the corner of the room.
The woman sighs, and takes a glass from the dish rack. She cups the two crickets into the glass. On the edge of the sink, there is a plastic container with holes in the top. Inside are some tomato tops, a banana peel, and some squash innards. She pops the two crickets into the container and closes the lid. On the outside of the container, there is a neatly placed label, with nicely written letters, which read: Chicken Food.
The End936 Words. About 40 minutes of writing and only a single spelling and grammar check.
