Nov. 18 The Deciding DIce

This is day 18 of writing a Flash Fiction piece each day with a prompt. This prompt was dice. A novel has been described like a house, a short story like a room and a Flash Fiction piece a closet.

 

 

When Anna was a little girl, she frustrated her mother. “Make up you mind. Do you want the strawberry or a lemon lollipop? Soft boiled egg or scrambled? Wear the blue sweater or red?

 

She didn’t change as she grew. It took her forever to decide anything big or small.

 

Her sophomore year of high school her older brother Brett gave her a pair of dice. “Instead of agonizing over a choice, give each possibility a number and shake the dice. Whatever number comes up, do it.”

 

Anna started the next day when it was a choice between one glee club or two drama club. One came up. She sang through high school.

 

When she was accepted at three universities the dice told her one Brown, two Northeastern, three Lowell. The dice stopped at three, the least expensive. It turned out to be fortuitous, because at the end of the first semester her major choices were one biology, two music, three engineering. She wasn’t sure about the di's wisdom when it rolled two, but it led her into being a music teacher, which she loved.

 

She never told anyone about the way she made decisions. Even when Greg proposed at the top of the Hyatt, she excused herself and went into the ladies room to shake one of the dice she always kept in her purse: One, yes. No two. It came up one the first time and the next three times a two rolled to a stop on the sink. "I'll ignore the dice. It's stupid," she said to herself in the mirror.

 

When their daughter was born, they couldn’t decide between many names. She suggested using the dice. Although he’d laughed at her, he’d said, “Why not?”

 

They assigned each possible name a number 1-12 and rolled. Number 9 was Tiffany so Tiffany it was. Greg never knew about all the other times that she had used the dice for decision making.

 

When Greg hit her for the fourth time, breaking a rib, she rolled the dice again.

· One, she would call the police.

· Two, she would move home.

· Three, she get a restraining an order.

· Four, she would see a lawyer.

 

She rolled the dice four times. The numbers came up three, four, one, two.

 

She followed them all.