The empty chair — a room for one change

Original flash fiction · Invented characters · The honest caption

Sam wrote a sentence on the workshop board: “A photograph contains a chair beside a closed window.” Nobody laughed. It was exactly the problem they had been avoiding.

A visitor added a suggestion beneath it: “Describe the arrangement before inventing an absent owner.” Sam read it twice, then tried it on just one small part of the work.

The next morning the board was still untidy. One corner, however, showed an actual attempt instead of another promise.