Flash Fiction Online #139, April 2025
“Practical Knitters” by Louise Hughes
“Janet and I Try to Get Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts at the Gilbert Rd Super Target. It’s the One in Scottsdale. No, the Other One. The One on Gilbert.” By Saul Lemerond (reprint, not reviewed)
“The Thing About the Castle” by David Hammond (nongenre, not reviewed)
“Akane is Dead” by Selphie Ke
“The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Teleporter” by M. J. Pettit
“You Have Been Murdered” by Andrew Kozma (reprint, not reviewed)
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
Set in a medieval fantasy world, “Practical Knitters” by Louise Hughes features a widowed queen and other female aristocrats who knit socks with magic powers for soldiers fighting multiple wars. It turns out that the women have a more important role to play.
The implication is that the women have decided to take control of the situation created by the men. The point is made effectively in what is otherwise a familiar kind of story.
“Akane is Dead” by Selphie Ke takes place in historic Japan. A courtesan performs a ritual for a young apprentice who was murdered by a lover, with terrifying results.
What distinguishes this horror story of supernatural revenge is the author’s unusually lush narrative style, which creates a vivid and convincing portrait of a time and place. This lifts it above other tales of its type.
Narrated in third person, “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Teleporter” by M. J. Pettit reveals what happens when you encounter your duplicate, created when you teleported out of the only place where the original is not destroyed during the process.
The premise is similar to that of the famous story “Think Like a Dinosaur” by James Patrick Kelly, although the plot is completely different. There is nor much to this brief tale other than the meeting between you and your original. Perhaps the intent is an allegory for the possible ways your life might have gone if you had made different choices.
Victoria Silverwolf is glad she had to type the title of one of the reprints only once.