Flash Fiction #27 - Sunday

I'm going to indulge myself with a slightly longer edition of these quick stories. Apparently, a story that is written in less than 1,000 words is the absolute maximum word count of what one would qualify as "flash fiction" fare. So this is going to be a slightly meatier endeavor, but it's a good one.

Once upon a time, there was a woman named Deena. She was a moderately successful sales clerk at a local firm. Part of that success came from hard work and dedication to her craft and it has translated to a long fruitful career and lots of connections.

Deena lived along in a small apartment. One of her fellow tenants is a fellow named Joe, who was a stout Catholic fellow and always gave Deena grief because she never went to church on Sundays. Deena always shrugged off his tantrums; he was stubborn in his beliefs that everyone should go to church and give themselves to the Lord, but he was an otherwise nice and funny guy. Joe even helped Deena in a couple binds, such as finding a good place for her girlfriend to live that was affordable.

As time went on, Deena saw less of Joe. She figured that he was busy and all. Then one day, on her way back from work, there was an ambulance in her apartment building. She rushed in to find out that Joe had suffered a stroke and passed away. Deena was saddened by this, but one of the other tenants told her not to feel sad for Joe.

"Joe's in a better place now," Deena was told. "He is one with the Lord."

From that day forward, Deena decided to honor Joe's memory by going to church every Sunday and her belief in the Lord grew strong as time went on. Five months later, Deena was found unconscious on the floor; word is she suffered a stroke and passed away. But she's one with the Lord now and in a far better place.

From that day forward, nobody in that apartment building went to church. When the pastor came by and asked one of the tenants why they stopped going to Sunday service, the tenant was blunt in his reply.

"Because if I go to church, I'll end up with a stroke and die. And I don't wanna die just yet."