It's Only Fireworks... (Flash Fiction)

Boom!

Fireworks burst overhead, showering a cascade of glittering green embers. Dev cringed at the sharp report, so like a shotgun blast. Turning from the display, hand shaking, he raked fingers through spiky raven hair. Sparks faded, leaving behind a plume of smoke and the acrid odor of sulfur. Dev tried to push the thought of his father away, but the memory clawed at his mind and pulled him a year into the past. Back to the last day he saw his father. To the morning of the hunting trip and the evening he stood in the driveway watching his father drive away.

In the driveway, Dev waited, muscles stiff with fatigue and clothes damp with evening dew. He stood there as the scarlet hue bled from the sky and indigo bloomed in its place. His ears roared with the buzzing drone of cicadas, drowning out his mother’s pleas to come inside. Dev continued his vigil as the stars winked on, one by one. He blinked back moisture that threatened to spill over his lashes. Staring intently down the pock-marked street, straining to see that weathered red pick-up truck in the gloom, Dev waited for headlights that would never come.

Boom!

“Did you see that, boy? Right through the heart!”

Dev closed his eyes, trying to block the image of the deer bleeding out in the verdant forest clearing. His eyes flew open as he watched red flow into green.

Like Christmas, he thought.

He swallowed the sour bile that burned his throat as he watched the deer sigh a last shuddering breath. Dev felt his chest tighten as he stood witness in the silent clearing, watching the light fade from the deer’s soft, brown eyes. He turned away as his father stalked toward the deer, meaty fists gripping the pearl-handled hunting knife as the blade flashed signals in the sunlight.

Boom!

Dev hissed in a breath as he stared wide-eyed at the fireworks shooting a sphere of red sparks. He closed his eyes and slowly recited the mathematical constant of Pi. As he neared the hundredth decimal place, his heart calmed and he glanced around the fairground. Resolute, he was determined to face the ghosts of his past.

I can do this.

He straightened his shoulders, shook his head, and returned his gaze to the sky.

It’s only fireworks…