Very specific commissions
Five Dials are holding another of their Very Specific Commission flash fiction competitions (deadline 5th May 2020), and as the name suggests they are prescriptive about setting, main character, and a line of dialogue to be included, which forces you to be extra-inventive I think. This time it's about an infectious disease expert, but I took part a few years ago when it was about a climate scientist, and it was great fun. They even quoted part of my story in Five Dials issue 42. The criteria for the one I entered was as follows:
about a scientist who smuggles out crucial climate change facts under the iron fist of a censorial government. Scientist’s name must be Rowena. Story must contain the line of dialogue: ‘Some things you just don’t see coming.’
Here's what I wrote in response, it might spur some of you on to respond to the latest one...
Recipe for Rebellion
by JY Saville
Rowena tensed at a noise from the corridor. She swallowed, fanned her face with the minutes of the environmental science regulatory committee and willed the printer to work faster. Five minutes later she was on her way out with a freshly-printed recipe for pea soup folded in her bag. Government employees weren't supposed to print personal items at work, but that was the least of her problems. If anyone tried making the soup they'd find it inedible. "Mark?" She knocked on the locked door of the bookshop. Like the library, it was closed until the government had decided what citizens could safely read. "You shouldn't come to the front door," Mark said as he opened it. "I'm visiting a friend, I don't want it to look like I'm sneaking." Mark held his hand out and Rowena passed him the print-out. "Pea soup?" "It's humidity data," she said. "It made me think of fog, pea-soupers." He tucked it inside a second-hand comic novel in a cardboard box, Rowena assumed it was the latest order from one of a network of climate scientists overseas. The government had banned publication of climate change data, officially dismissing it as nonsense but in reality knowing they had the only access to a crucial piece of the jigsaw. There were many government officials with links to companies that would benefit from being ahead of the game. They thought withholding the data would only damage their foreign rivals, not their own chances of survival. "I should have got out before the travel ban," she said. "Some things you just don’t see coming." The door crashed open and two men pointed guns at them. "Police!" one barked. "What are all these books doing here?" "This used to be a bookshop," said Mark. "It's old stock, strictly for export." The government had no objections to corrupting other countries' citizens. "Liar, she's here to read." Rowena moved closer to Mark and put her hand on his arm. "I'm just here for sex, honestly." To her surprise, Mark fished a condom from his jeans pocket and held it up as proof. She looked at him and he shrugged. The policemen looked uncertainly at each other, made a show of checking a few box-labels, and left. Shakily, Rowena sat on a table. "Could you fit me in one of your book shipments?" she said. "I can't do this any more."