This Flash Fiction piece features a character from Welsh mythology, called Blodeuwedd.  In ‘The Mabinogion’, Blodeuwedd is conjured up by magicians, Math and Gwydion, to be a wife for Lleu, who is also a magician and a warrior.  They make her from broom, meadowsweet and oak.  But Blodeuwedd betrays Lleu, by having an affair with Gronw Pebr, lord of Penllyn and plots to kill her husband.  As punishment, Gwydion transforms her into an owl.

How Blodeuwedd might have looked, after her tranformation.nickpix2012 / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

My flash fiction draws on memories of being asked to stand up on a carnival float with a few other girls from my Welsh class. I think we were supposed to be Blodeuwedd’s maids . . .

Blodeuwedd’s Call.

They spoke to me of Blodeuwedd and I laughed at all the flowers.  What did they mean to me, in this day and age?  But slowly, their petals smoothed over my brain and I got to thinking – I could be that girl in the bridesmaid’s dress, up on the float, for all to see.  I could wear the headdress and my mother’s makeup. 

They wanted me to have ringlets but I refused, would only let the brush slide through  to gloss and straighten.  I imagined her with a sheen of hair, you see; something that would play with the light. 

The day caught me unawares.  My sleeves were too short and I wasn’t allowed to wear a vest.  The wind saw through me, landed me with a chill, though I waved and smiled and gritted and never told anyone I didn’t enjoy myself.

It was my moment; love or hate.

K. S. Moore.