Written for Melissa’s Fandango Flash Fiction
Challenge. Here’s where the prompts took me.

The heat hit differently that afternoon. You’ve been out there too long …. no hat, no water, just you and the sky doing a slow white burn overhead.
Looking up, you squint; something shifted. The sun …. that ancient, indifferent fireball …. began to round itself out …. soften, blush.
Now it was spinning. Slowly, lazily, the way a piece of errant fruit rolls across the kitchen countertop. And that’s when you saw it …. a navel …. a tiny, perfect dimple.
You’re embraced, enveloped in a fragrant blanket …. sweet, sharp …. citrusy static crackling through millions of miles of space. The whole sky smells like your grandmother’s orchard in summer. You thought: an orange! Of course …. it’s an orange! What else could it possibly be?
So incredibly thirsty.
NAR©2026
This is “Orange and Red Beams” by Eric Burdon
Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thank you for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.

Better drink some water!🧉
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Oh, I love this! You have a great imagination, Nancy. ☮️🌼
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Thanks so much, Eugi. Wishing you sunshine! ☀️
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yum
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😋 🧃
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Get out of the sun babe!
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I used to worship the sun; now I just melt! 🫠
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I burn.
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Sounds like a psychedelic experience to me – not that I would know much about that of course!
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No I! hehehe 🤭
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You have a wonderful imagination, and you must have been a hippie way back when …
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Hahaha! I was a quasi-hippie/rocker back in the day, which definitely enhanced my imagination! Great hearing the Lemon Pipers again, my friend. Thank you. 😂 🎶💙
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I suppose I was too, with long dark hair, two tone platform shoes, and mauve check bell bottom slacks 🥰🎶🤗
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Photos, please! 😂
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🤔🤗
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Such a good take on the prompt. You’ve thought outside the box 🥰
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Nance this is a great trippy, sensory-loaded piece – painting that point where severe heatstroke crosses over into surreal, blissful delirium – love it 🍊
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If only the heat affected me that way! I usually just morph into a puddle on the ground. 😂 Thank you, Ange ☀️
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😀
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Great imaginative thoughts there Nancy 💞
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Thanks, Suzanne! It must’ve been all that Vit C! ☀️ 💛
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