Daily Flash Fiction Entries

Thank You, Dr. King

Written for the "Daily Flash Fiction Challenge" 
Prompt: Write about speaking on an important issue in public for the first time.

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Having spent all night thinking about it, I knew I was ready to face the day.

“Are you sure about this, honey?” Mother asked, looking quite concerned.

“I’ll be fine, Mom,” I replied. I prayed it wouldn’t be the last time I saw her, since leaving my home every morning was a journey in itself.

I smoothed out my dress, knowing there was a change of clothes in my school bag. I took a deep breath and stepped outside - into the morning sun and to the familiar sounds of hate.

“Ready?” the soldier asked.

I wondered if he knew what I was about to do. “Yes, I am.”

I marched between the armed guards, running over the speech in my mind. I barely felt the first vegetable thrown at me, running down my cheek and into my dress. It smelled like rotten tomatoes.

At school, the crowd was much bigger, the insults louder. My dress was now a shadow of its former self. At least no one had thrown a brick today.

I climbed up the steps to my high school and spun around to face the angry mob. I stared into the sea of white faces and a few black ones, who looked at me with hope in their eyes, and in a voice that seemed to come from the depths of my soul, I cried out.

“I am human just like you! I bleed just like you! I feel pain just like you! All I ask is that you judge me not for the color of my skin, but for the content of my character!”

A silence fell upon the crowd, a small smile of victory on my lips. I knew it might be short-lived, but at that moment, all I had was a sense of liberation.

Word Count: 300

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Note:

1.This piece was inspired by a picture titled Problems We All Live With by Norman Rockwell
2. Part of speech was taken from Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have A Dream


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