Flash Fiction

In the area where I live there are rules. I don’t always, or try not to always, follow them. In local parlance they are referred to as the ‘Mighty Five’.

The first rule is, like most other first rules, by far the most important and states ‘Suppose you’re alone’. That’s it. That’s all there is to rule one. It’s difficult to follow most of the time, especially if you are actually alone. It can, if your not very careful, create a feedback loop in your head until the left and right hemispheres may blow apart or even your head may fall off.

The second rule says, depending on your interpretation, ‘Never repeat yourself’. Which may, as interpretation, tend to mean that copying or cloning is illegal but not necessarily forbidden. When you think about it strictly if the first rule is adhered to then the second rule falls naturally into place. As, if you’re alone, you know all there is to know and subsequently you have no need to repeat, reiterate, restate or, in fact re anything.

The third rule is open to a multitude of interpretations. The most common being that if you ‘Take your time’ you will not break rule two or even rule four and rule four states ‘Always imagine’. It is a hard rule to live by and so is often the most ignored.

The fifth and final rule has, as far as this writer is aware, never been written down. It is said that if you follow rules one to four the fifth becomes self-perpetuating.

As your writer has said I rarely follow these rules, not one. Not one, not two, three or four and tomorrow I shall be executed because I have apparently severely contravened rule five.