It’s the first of the month, as well as the first of the year, so there’s a new Hot Flash on my Hot Flashes page. Hot Flashes, in case you don’t know, are micro-mini short stories of 50 words or fewer.

ANYWAY, I’ve signed up for the Deal Me In challenge to read a short story every week in 2018. Yay! Here’s the first one:

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/DesBlu.shtml

Destiny and a Blue Cloak

by Thomas Hardy

A case of mistaken identity leads to a passionate romance between Agatha and Oswald; but when Oswald goes to India on a scholarship, it seems to be the first in a series of events that conspire to keep them apart.
– Length: 25 pages
– Age Rating: PG
– Genre: Romance

Hardy often writes of the implacability of Fate. In this story, the part of Fate is played by a young woman in a blue cloak – or possibly by two young women in blue cloaks.

The victim is the young man who mistakes one woman for another, as they both have the same blue cloak and he’s only seen them from afar and knows of one by her reputation for beauty. The poor sad bastard goes to India to make his fortune, pledging to return and marry his love.

This happens and that happens and [no spoilers] the two women cheat one another in various ways.

It can’t be said that either one loses since, in the end, giving each other one in the eye seems to be, as Hardy writes the story, the ultimate goal of each.

My heart bleeds for the person who appears least in the story. This is the genius of Hardy.

If YOU need a short story to read, I have free ones here (not counting the Hot Flashes) on my Free Reads page. I also have three collections (not counting the Hot Flashes collection) for 99 cents each linked from my Short Stories page.

A WRITING PROMPT BASED ON MY POST: Two people are more interested in besting one another than they are in the object of their rivalry.

MA