Quincy and Queenie were in a quandary about Quinella. The queue for quesadillas from Quinton’s was out the door and down the quay; it being chilly and rainy the mood grew querulous at times, not always quietly so. Quinella texted from the quadrivial of Fork and Spoon questioning whether to go left or right or just querl in the roundabout and return to the quinzie; no surprise, shrugged Quincy, being a homebody was her quiddity, you could see it coming in this rain. Queenie quietly wanted to join her, wearing slippers and sipping chowder—quahog their favorite. But Quincy was on a quest for quesadillas whether quirky Quinella joined them or not—even if she was beautiful enough for two, and though he didn’t want to quibble, not querulous by nature, he simply had no quit in him even now as it began to pour, and Queenie found this quality rather quaint.

The street began to flood. Quail fled to higher ground. Two ducks quacked by. Queenie held her gloveless hands to the sky, welcoming respite from the drought, soaking in the rain, her hair wet and heavy and straight. Glancing at her quobbled fingers aging before her eyes, she knew there was no need to worry, a temporary phenomenon, an extraordinary act of the body actually, adjusting to slippery circumstances with fingers wrinkled for a better grip, something she could use now to hold onto silverware, to navigate quagmires with her quixotic Quincy. As the queue inched closer to the quesadilla counter, she fingered the quetzales in her pocket, longing to quell her quintessential hunger, quash her quartet of qualms, quivering in a rainstorm she quietly loved but could not quantify.

Quite.

—Winner of MacQ’s “Triple-Q” Writing Challenge

Guy Biederman

is the author of five collections of poetry and short prose, including Nova Nights (Nomadic Press, 2021) and Edible Grace (KYSO Flash Press, 2019). His stories have appeared in many journals such as Bull, Carve, Flashback Fiction, great weather for Media, KYSO Flash, Riddled with Arrows, and Exposition Review, where he was twice a Flash 405 winner. His work has recently received a Publisher’s Choice Award and an Editor’s Choice Award, and has been nominated for Best of The Net. His next collection, Translated From The Original: one-inch punch fiction, will be published by Nomadic Press in 2022. Guy lives on a houseboat with his wife and salty cat, drinks black coffee in the afternoon, and walks the planks daily.

Author’s website: https://www.guybiederman.com/

Author’s blog: This Day Afloat: Reflections of Life on the Water