The Bright Side (flash fiction)

In times of stress or high emotion, I tend to retreat into my own mind. Some would think it was odd that my attention would drift from where most peoples’ focus would and should be on to a place unreachable to anyone except me. In the current such moment, my mind goes back to graduation night at Hennessy High. I knew on that day that my life had great potential. I would be attending college in the fall and I could easily picture my future full of success, a happy marriage, and a couple of kids. Well, the college had been harder than I had anticipated, so I found myself getting a lesser degree in the same field. It wasn’t what I had dreamt of, but my bills got paid on time. I’d been married too, although blessedly with no kids. It had ended before our first anniversary. My failures in life didn’t matter today, if one wanted to look at the bright side of things. College was of no use to me now, and a husband would only have to mourn me. And kids? Well, no kid should have to grow up without a mom. As I look past the gun barrel only inches from my face into the hard eyes of a killer, I know that all that matters now is whether or not he pulls the trigger. All I care about at this point is tha---