Flash Fictions by Benjamin D. Togate

On and Off

It was the first time she was on a cross-country trip... all by herself.
"16 year old me" she thought to herself "in the big wide world"

She smiled, looking out the window of her train, seeing the landscape slowly changing from hills to fields from fields to towns and from towns to forests and rocks.
She looked cool and calm. As always. Her beany hat keeping her head warm and cozy - but in reality she just wore it to hide under it. Her hair green and outgoing - but with long bangs so she wouldn't have to look people directly in the eyes. Her clothes cool and baggy - but really just so no one could see her imperfections, inside and out.

But this trip, this should change her. At least she did hope so. She'd meet her friend, that she had known in ages, but never met in person. Funny how with people back home she never seemed to connect - but that one person across the country knew her whole life story. That she was raised by a single mum, who was warm yet strict. That she cut herself, once, to ease the pain - but learnt that shit hella hurt so she stopped it. That she considered taking drugs - but her friend, that person she would soon meet - talked her out of it. Who knows, maybe she rescued her life.

When she arrived the train station looked eerily empty, but the sky was bright and the air was clear. Her destination was in a small, old town - beautiful, but boring. She chuckled to herself. That's how her friend had described it. But when she actually stepped on those old cobblestones and through the narrow alleyways, she just loved it. It was like she had stepped out of her life, back in the city, into this new life, way into the past. With her little trolley, green hair and baggy clothes she felt out of place - yet, she didn't, because she was about to meet her best friend of three years, and she knew that even if she didn't belong to this old town, she belonged to her friend.

Her friend didn't pick her up.

"My house is just down the road from the train station, it's the little inn"
The hotel her parents ran was actually called "little inn". She couldn't miss it. That's what her friend promised.

And sure enough, a few hundred metres past historic wooden houses, traditional shops and delicious restaurants, she saw the sign "Little Inn".
She stopped and smiled.

She turned to take a moment and released positive wishes of the future into the air. Like feathered dreams, that slowly floated away to one day make their way back as reality.

This place, this town, the little inn right in front of her - is where "her people" lived. She didn't even have a doubt about it. Her best friend and herself - that was online and offline.