Hi everyone.
Sorry I’ve been dragging my heals a bit. For the next challenge, you will need to include ALL the following things in your story (including title or by implication). The challenge will close at 12.01am on 1 April. Please remember to link your writing to the Flash Fiction group AND paste it in this forum thread.

Fool
Chocolate
Nail gun
Face
Probable
Humour
Xenophobic
Charges
Soap
Ungulate

My entry is Here

The Impending Battle
The xenophobic attitude of the leader had instilled hatred in his charges. They were ready to fight. One of them stumbled. “Shit” he blurted.
“Hush” whispered the leader. “You sound like an ungulate on cobble stones. I’ll wash your mouth out with soap if I hear another word.” There was no humour in his delivery.
The group had no idea what he meant. They crept on through the alley. They were well armed. Sticks and shovels at hand. Johnno even had a nail gun.
The leader was no fool. He knew what they had to face. It was probable that they’d have to make a number of charges to reclaim their lost ground.
Those foreign kids from the next block weren’t going to have ownership of his gang’s cubby house any longer. The sooner this was done the better.
Besides. They had chocolate to share after the battle.
“LET’S GO.”

Here’s my first go at this challenge!

Betrayed

Chocolate eyes died in mine. His noble face closed, pain melting into peace. The cost of living free.

He had flinched as I cleaned his wounds. I smiled at that. My big brave boy shying away from soap sting.

I traced the hole behind his ear. Small and dark with evil buried deep.

Possessing the blackest of humour, it was probable that they meant this as a joke. The final insult to my beloved. No finely crafted sword or quiver of plush arrows for him. No, a common tool, a nail gun.

I had been a fool. As one of them, I thought they’d leave us be, hadn’t realised how xenophobic they were.

Angry, I raised a fist to the sky and vowed revenge on my fellow Gods.

For my love, my hope, my centaur.

Life

The upstairs neighbour always wore heels indoors. She’d come home late and clatter through the flat. Downstairs in bed, we’d track her movements.
“Bathroom,” I’d whisper.
She’d clop around removing jewels, soaping face and brushing the parts that needed it.
“Ungulate,” he’d say.

The fool always used words no-one understood. He did it with dry humour, sparing a thought for unused words. But then it wasn’t funny anymore. Nothing says serious like a nail gun to the head of a neighbour.

He was still wearing his half smile when he used the word xenophobic in the interview. When he thought he could fight the charges. Before 25 years to life loomed ahead of him. Ahead of me. But words went toward probable cause. And his smiles were disavowed.

I bring him some chocolate when I visit each month. I give him smiles of my own.

I always wear flats.

Assumptions and Revenge

John’s face was twisted with rage; spit foamed like soap at the corners of his mouth. ‘You xenophobic bastard. You were let off on all charges because you bribed someone, didn’t you? You don’t fool me!’

The subject of John’s wrath could only gasp pitifully, due to the hands gripping his throat.

‘You think it’s humour, huh? The most probable result from your stupidity was never going to be good.’ He paused, and his brow furrowed. ‘It wasn’t an accident was it?’ he whispered. ‘You didn’t like his chocolate-brown skin, so you came after him with a nail gun.’

A few nearby horses were the only witnesses, and like most ungulates, they didn’t even glance up from their eating.

And the winner is …

First: Jcmontgomery with “Home Schooled”

Closely followed by Danpatmore and Damian.

Well done everyone.

Cool work JC!

I remember back in Grade School, Jimmy Nailor, was the toughest kid in class. Unfortunately, he was also the meanest. His nickname was “Nail Gun”. Everyone seemed to think it was just a play on his last name. Although, several small, round scars on his cousin Earl’s face seemed like a probable origin to me.

He was absolutely the most xenophopic bigot I had ever met and possessed absolutely no sense of humor. Back in Grade two, Tommy Wong, once asked him for directions to the restroom. Jimmy didn’t like his accent and dragged him to the boys’ where he forced Tommy to eat soap.

The one saving grace with Jimmy is that he wore clickers on his cowboy boots so you could hear the snick, snick of his ungulate steps coming down the hallway and, most times, could run for cover.

Jimmy’s favourite pass-time was beating kids up for their lunch money and snacks. He loved to say, “A fool and his chocolate are soon parted”.

I would be amazed if Jimmy was never brought up on charges.