Flash Reprint: Eric Bosse’s “Seagulls”

[Editor's Note: Each Wednesday, and the occasional Saturday, FF.Net will feature a reprint of our favorite flashes that originally appeared in print]

She asked how seagulls recognize each other, how they know friends from strangers. This was near the end. We had driven from Denver to Santa Cruz—a journey long enough to make us hate each other for a few hours. After forty-five minutes at the shark-attack museum, we spread our towels on the sand.

"I mean," she said, "do gulls recognize their mates as they're both stabbing after the same dead fish?"

"I'm not sure," I said.

With her finger, she drew two short lines curving to a point in the sand, then two more, and so on, until the beach between us ached with hungry stick birds.

This story appeared both in book form (Magnificent Mistakes) and in a print journal (the final issue of Quick Fiction). A reading of "Seagulls" is available on Youtube. Eric's blog is here: Everything is Beautiful, and Nothing Hurts.