Dominik Slusarczyk is the 2nd place winner of Streetlight’s 2024 Flash Fiction Contest

We stay up all night drinking. When we eventually crawl into our tents the sun is already half way up. the rest of our party are getting up, ready to start their day, as we finish ours.
—-
“Being awake during the day is better” Jim says. There are multiple sizzling frying pans on the fire behind him. We are cooking bacon, eggs, steaks, anything the people cooking could find. The smell of the food fills the air and makes my stomach growl with hunger.
“The day is boring,” I say. “You all go on stupid hikes and stuff. It’s better to stay up all night drinking and sleep during the day.”
“You’re missing the whole point of summer,” Sarah says. Her blonde hair is tied into pigtails. Her cheeks are covered with freckles that have started to blend into her tan. “Summer is all about the sun. You want to be awake when the sun is up.”
“All the sun does is cause cancer,” Bryan says as he takes a drag of the third cigarette he’s smoked in the half hour he’s been up.
—-
“It was great,” I say to Helen, my wife. She is sat at the other end of the table. She has short brown hair and wide eyes. She always has a thin smile on her face as if she is remembering a funny story. “We drank in a field, drank on the beach, drank in the forest. It was a proper good holiday.”
“You drink too much on your little holidays,” Helen says, but I can tell she doesn’t really mind and she is just happy I had a good time.
—-
“I’m telling you we should go to Poland,” Bryan says. “Vodka’s like a pound a shot.”
“It’s not all about cheap alcohol,” Sarah says. We are sat around a circular table in the back corner of the pub. The table and chairs are made out of the same dark brown wood. Everyone has a full pint in front of them. “We want to be able to go on nice walks. We want museums and art galleries and stuff.”
“Poland’s got countryside and museums and everything,” I say. “One of my mates from work went last year and had a great time.”
“What about Helen?” Sarah asks. “Let’s pick somewhere she wants to go. It’s silly not having your wife on our holidays.”
“She doesn’t like all the drinking,” I say, but Helen really doesn’t come because I don’t invite her.



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