New Writers Flash Fiction Competition 2024 – Winner
States That Shaped Your Octopus Brain
by Gail Anderson
Submersion
Your tiny flat is nothing more than a crevice in an urban reef, a chub upstairs raising a couple of minnows, a shark in the basement, never sleeping. You join shoals of grey commuters each morning, wash up in the glass office tower – a brackish tank with piped-in air – where you play games of intelligence. Answer the bell. Type some words. Stay clear of the lobsters.
Buoyancy
Lunchtimes, weekends, you rush through rain to the city aquarium, follow arrowed hallways to the cephalopods, and when you reach his glass he turns a brilliant red, writhes to your side joyous as a fistful of ribbons. You were there six weeks ago as he was brought through the sea door bruised and battered from a trawler’s nets; you’ve come every day since. He has three hearts. An immense brain that extends into each of his eight powerful arms. He can change shape, colour at will.
Gravity
In angular darkness you sit stiff-bummed on a marble bench while he floats weightless in a world of green-blue brilliance. You press a hand against his four-inch glass; he raises a row of suckers to meet your fingers. Tomorrow is his day of discharge; he will return to the deep. His letterbox eyes whisper mysteries. You have only one heart, not to be wasted.
Levity
It is storming that final morning. You don a crimson dress, a coral necklace. Lace red high-top sneakers, arrive at the office deluged, pooling the cubicle. Under the boss’s eye, you raise the over-stacked in-tray, the keyboard, drop them clattering into the bin. Then you are away: shapeshifting down the stairs and out, wet pavements sucking under tentacle soles. The water, you know, will be warmer than imagined, the giant arms strong as awakening.
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Author bio: Gail Anderson is a former stop-motion animator from California who lives in Scotland. Her short-form writing has taken first prize in competitions including the Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction, the Scottish Arts Trust Story Awards and the Winchester Writers’ Festival. Recent work appears in The Southampton Review, New Writing Scotland, New Flash Fiction Review and Mslexia.
(Website: gailanderson.com | Twitter/X: @smallgreenberd)