Melissa’s Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge #373
In response to Melissa’s weekly challenge: https://wp.me/pefeKf-4Dy
The Day the Orange Escaped
No one knew exactly when it happened.
Some said just after dawn.
Others insisted it had slipped free sometime during the night while the sky was still deciding whether to dream or wake.
But by breakfast—
there it was.
An orange.
Floating in the sky.
At first, people blamed exhaustion.
“Too much screen time,” someone muttered.
“Heat,” said another.
“Social media,” blamed a third, because somehow everything was social media’s fault now.
But the orange remained.
Round. Calm. Entirely unbothered.
Birds adjusted surprisingly fast. Clouds drifted around it like polite company. Children pointed upward without asking permission to believe what they were seeing.
Adults, however, struggled.
Things belonged in categories.
Fruit belonged in bowls. Moons belonged in skies. And absolutely nothing was supposed to interrupt the quiet order of ordinary life.
But ordinary had grown tired.
The orange hung there all afternoon, glowing softly in the blue, refusing explanation.
By evening, something curious happened.
People slowed down.
They looked up.
Strangers started talking.
One woman laughed for the first time in weeks.
A man called his brother.
Someone sat quietly in the park and remembered what wonder felt like.
And though no one said it aloud, many secretly hoped the orange would stay.
Because maybe the world needed reminding—
that not everything strange is wrong.
Sometimes—
the impossible arrives simply to help us rememberhow to look up again.
With love
— Maggie The Afterlove Voice 💫
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