Sea Glass

Flash Fiction by Anelysta Emily

You can purchase Written Tales Magazine in print or digital, or become a paid subscriber and download your favorite editions. To view our upcoming stories & poems, please visit our publishing schedule calendar.

---

Smile for the picture! Scoot in on the left, and those in the front need to bend down! Everyone has to fit!” The timer starts, and the woman rushes into her spot within the frame of the photograph. How many people can you fit in a four-by-six? Or for your senior photos? What about your two friends for a framed Christmas present? Your whole family for your holiday card? Your entire graduating class for your graduation party invites? 

There’s this need, this desire, to capture life, to take these permanent snapshots of our lives in every moment. Remember the camping trip at six where you sang all night long? Here’s the voice memos. What about those annual trips to the local carnival? Here are the ticket stubs. Oh and you can’t forget your canoe trip senior year of high school because here’s all those pebbles from inside your shoe.