Flash Fiction Friday 29: ‘The Jazz and The Blues’ by Mia Johansson

Welcome to Flash Fiction Friday and the twenty-ninth piece of flash fiction in this series. This week’s is a 713-worder by spotlightee Mia Johansson who brought us ‘On the Bridge‘ back in November.

The Jazz and the Blues

It was that year I was born. Was it a newsworthy event? Yes. I was born. Was it historical? Maybe. Cultural? I doubt it, but who knows. Astrological? It must have been since I was born. That means the planets and the stars, the whole universe was in harmony giving birth to ME.

How was it?

Sweat and pain and screaming and yelling. A lot of pain. It must have hurt a lot coming to an unknown place all alone, trying to make my way into the world. And all you see is a light, bright and colored like a rainbow. In fact it is a rainbow. The light. It has all the colors in it. It has everything you want. And something more, Life!

It was quite some time ago but I still remember it. Or maybe… Anyway ever since that day I have started to die a little. Every day we die a little. So strange, isn’t it? We are born to start dying. Every second until we finally remember the day we made the step into the unknown. But maybe that day, the final day, we’ll remember exactly that moment, The Birth. It is the moment we are (are we?) ready to be reborn and see the light. Again.

There was a lot of talking crap, wasn’t there?

“At least you’ve had a good morning, haven’t you?” my neighbor said to me this morning. I suppose he’s right, since nothing is personal or private or intimate anymore nowadays.

In fact I did have a good morning today. I managed to get up like every single morning since that very day when I saw the light. And it’s a miracle. Just think how marvelous life is; to feel the heart beating, the blood rushing into your veins and the sweat drops trickling-down all over your body. To wake up early in the morning and open your eyes wide into a fabulous new world full of the unexpected. Full of colors, of dance and movement. Of silence

Of Jazz

And Blues.

How was I? Naked. Pretty much naked. As I am today. As I was before and shall be tomorrow. I mean why should we need something so trivial, so useless as some pieces of thread to hide… what? Us from whom we are, to be sure that we’ll succeed and conquer that tiny spot, that short moment we’ve been given here, that we call life?

That morning I thought it would be as usual; shiny and warm. But it wasn’t. The wind started to blow and it was quite chilly. The train station looked like a spider net of railways and people. So many people! I’ve never seen so many in the same place. There were hundreds of them and all in a hurry making their own smelly tracks on the big hall floor, or waiting diligently for a train to arrive. Sleeping or reading, eating or just holding tightly their crying babies. Or maybe each other’s hands, listening to that thrilling, sensual music flowing smoothly through their own breathing haze. If it wasn’t for that music playing the moment I entered the hall room, that moment when I met him…

All that jazz…

I didn’t say a thing, I was just quiet. And waited.

It was the first time. The journey. Was it? Yes, it was, so I was both excited and worried at the same time. Everything was new for me; the places, the town, the road. The people. When I think of it I realize that I was so nervous and focused that day that in fact I don’t remember much of the trip. Who were those people on the bus, on the train? Don’t know. I have no idea. People. Just people. Travelling people. Like me. But I did manage to wake up every day since then. Every morning. Today too. And it’s a miracle, isn’t it?

Where am I? Here, I suppose. Still here, aware of the moment. At least I try. But seen from another perspective, from another side of the Universe, I don’t even exist. I am fiction.

How do I look? Still 25!

What am I doing? That was a damn good question.

Who am I with?

Well…

I still got the blues.

Thank you, Mia. You called it ‘twisted’ in your email and I agree – I love ‘twisted’.

Mia Johansson is a civil engineer living in Sweden, author of the fiction novel “Unfinished discussion about God – The diary of a time traveller” expected to be published 2012, and other short stories. She is an occasional photographer interested in the architecture of old and modern cities, street life, a good cup of coffee and jazz. I have just recently joined Google+ (late to the party, I know) and Mia is already there; you can view her stunningly attractive albums here. You also read more about Mia in her spotlight and her other FFF story ’On the Bridge‘. Tonight’s story was podcasted here.

If you’d like to submit your 1,000-word max. stories for consideration for Flash Fiction Friday take a look here.

The blog interviews will return as normal tomorrow with thriller / romance novelist Gregg Feistman – the three hundred and thirty-second of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, biographers, agents, publishers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore and Kobo. My eBooks are now on Amazon, with more to follow, and I also have a quirky second-person viewpoint story in charity anthology Telling Tales.

I have a new forum at http://morgenbailey.freeforums.org and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s ‘Contact me’ page or plain and simple, email me.

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