In That Next World - Flash Fiction Story by John Brantingham

 

In That Next World

Flash Fiction Story

by John Brantingham

The heat of the afternoon, the morning’s hike and the scent of those million pine trees, drowsed me as I walked, so I stepped off the trail and behind a Jeffrey Pine, which added a vanilla scent. I sat down with my back against it and my legs stretched out, and I closed my eyes.

I woke to nap amnesia and wondered for a moment where I was and what I was doing here in this place of mountains and giant trees. I thought for a moment that maybe I had died and passed into whatever the next phase of my existence was going to be, and this was maybe a realm perfect for an awkward 15 year old boy, sunshine, warmth, and beauty free from bullies and anger. 

I stood and walked around and found the trail and my memory, and I kept hiking on, not knowing if I’d slept ten minutes or two hours. I stayed in that dreamy state for the rest of the afternoon.

When I met another hiker on the trail, I said, “Hello” and he said it back, and I wondered if this was me passing an angel or another soul walking through the Elysian Fields, which I’d heard about in English class and didn’t fully understand. I liked the music that it made in my ears, the way it sounded against the rushing noise of the wind.

I started singing “Strawberry Fields” softly to myself but replaced “Strawberry” with “Elysian” and didn’t stop until I got to the trailhead and then only because I could hear a big group of hikers, laughing and shouting to each other.

I knew that if they heard me, they would laugh.

John Brantingham is the recipient of a New York State Arts Council grant and was Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks’ first poet laureate. His work has been in hundreds of magazines and The Best Small Fictions 2016 and 2022. He has twenty-two books of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction. He is the editor of The Journal of Radical Wonder.