24/7, Divination 22

I am participating in Folded Word's writing month event, called "24/7," during August. Participants spend the first 24 days of the month writing short works, then spend the final week in revisions. The second part of this entry gives more details.

I'm not required to give a central theme to the entries, but I chose the theme "Divinations" and am using a pair of dice to generate prompts (values shown below). My prompt for August 22 is to write divination-themed micro-fiction that uses fire.

Body Heat (100 words)

Edgar held his hands over a trash can ablaze, leaning in.

Itch, the kid, gawked. "It doesn't melt you?"

"Nah." The old robot grinned. "They don't make 'em like me any more."

Itch took a swig. Thick glass clattered. "Will Slick live?"

Edgar spoke from inside the flames. "Odds are 88.6 to one against."

Two vagrants comforted Slick, proffering rotgut. Edgar parted their cigarette smoke, glowing like iron through rags.

He folded himself around Slick on their shared cardboard, felt the man's muscles unclench.

His warmth would last until morning. Fire danced in his eyes as the others huddled 'round.


Bicycle transport box marked "Shelter" at Park Avenue West and Lawrence in Denver, CO, August 2008.

Key to dice values:

Blue Die
1 (CE logo). Twitter poetry (140 characters or fewer)
2. Twitter fiction (140 characters or fewer)
3. short poetry (8 lines or fewer)
4. prose poems (under 100 words)
5. micro fiction (40-100 words)
6. flash fiction (101-500 words)

Purple Die
1 (CE logo). Birth
2. Water
3. Air
4. Earth
5. Fire
6. Death

My Random House College Dictionary, Revised Edition, defines "divination" as 1. the attempt to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge by occult or supernatural means; 2. augury; prophecy; 3. perception by intuition; instinctive foresight. One meaning of "occult" is "hidden." That gives me a broad range of interpretation.

Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other Journeys Promote Your Page Too










Vol. 1, Deviations: Covenant (2nd Ed.)
Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite
Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny
Vol. 4, Deviations: Bloodlines
Free downloads at the Deviations website and on Smashwords.

Go to Manybooks.net to access Covenant, Appetite, Destiny, and Bloodlines in even more formats!

Participant, Operation E-Book Drop. (Logo credit: K.A. M'Lady & P.M. Dittman.)

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