It took a moment for his brain to register what his eyes had already seen. Icy rivulets announced the first hard freeze. It was another eight seconds before his pre-coffee mind could grasp the utter stillness outside. Then the vague memory of sheets hanging there last night, a striped shirt, a worn pant leg that should have been frozen with the gravity-defying icicles.
He walked outside, joints stiff and unwilling as his waking self. At the bottom step, both gave out. He stared at the heap of twisted laundry, torn from its pegs. He groped in the dark blank of his mind for a memory of last night, but came up as cold and still as the woman’s bare foot protruding from the folds.
____________
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Karen B. Nelson 
Love the ending! Well, the other parts too
You gave me (((chills!!)))
Love the detail!
Here’s mine~
http://susielindau.com/2011/10/28/vanished-100-word-flash-fiction/
Very creepy and unsettling! Mine has nothing on this for being disturbing, LOL 😉
Ooooo, love the twist at the end!~ I wonder what book this is going to spark for you? Keep it going!
Wow! That is powerful stuff! Fantastic!!
Oooh, Great imagery and chill inspiring! Love it!
Very nice! I could see it, could feel the cold. Great twist at the end!
Here’s mine: http://sweettea.kdmccrite.com/a-highway-runs-through-it-flash-fiction-102811/
This was very cool and beautifully constructed, but makes me want to saddle up and hightail it out of here!
Great story, Karen!
Dear Karen,
I used to hang cold, wet sheets outside in freezing weather (Navy boot camp sometime in the preceding century) and let me tell you, you captured it perfectly. So…Where were you on the night of…? Ha!
Nice story, Karen.
Aloha,
Doug
There’s a lot of work in this 100 words, excellent, Robin
Oh no! This is sad and creepy all at the same time! It’s one of my favorites so far this week, though — really, it’s a complete story.
I posted late, so I’ll re-post here: http://thecolorlime.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/flash-fiction-discovered-99-words/
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