Member-only story
Flash Fiction — Based on a true story of an interesting bus ride in San Francisco…
The bag wouldn’t stop popping. Everyone gave her odd looks, and Nessa tried to keep an apologetic expression on her face. She held it tighter, hoping the pink plastic bag wouldn’t suddenly break open. If it did, then the already desultory MUNI ride would flare up in chaos as lively crickets hopped around, losing themselves in people’s grocery bags or thick winter scarves.
The bus ride wasn’t too bad; at least she had found a seat. It was just so awkward to hold onto a bright pink plastic bag bursting with frisky crickets. Her two kids, with their father for the weekend, had begged her to remember the crickets for their pet frogs. She had never liked reptiles much, but had let her son and daughter bring home two brightly colored frogs from the pet store the week before.
“It might be good for them to have something to hold onto and take care of, because of the divorce,” the therapist had told her a month ago. Nessa was desperate to try anything that would help their lives reach at least a semblance of normality, and so there were two hungry frogs croaking away in her silent and empty apartment, waiting for their dinner.
The bus turned a corner onto Clement Street, a street full of bakeries and colorful Asian produce markets, and she felt relief knowing her stop was…
