Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: The Piano

Welcome to Fiction Friday, our weekly flash fiction challenge.

Here’s how it works:

Set a timer for five minutes and start writing

Keep going for as long as you can once the timer goes off

No editing allowed—raw writing only

When you’re finished, feel free to share in the comments (but there’s no pressure)

Today’s Prompt – The Piano – 

You inherit your mother’s grand piano along with a cryptic instruction: “Play only what you remember. Never learn anything new.”

The piano is magnificent but hasn’t been tuned in decades. When you finally sit at the bench, your fingers move across the keys playing a concerto you’ve never studied—one that doesn’t exist in any catalog. Your hands remember every note perfectly, muscle memory so deep it feels ancestral.

But with each performance, you notice the room changes. Furniture rearranges itself. The windows show different seasons, different cities, different decades. A woman appears in the corner during the third movement—watching you with recognition and sorrow. She’s the same woman in photographs throughout your mother’s house, always in the background, never identified.

One evening, mid-performance, your hands try to play something new—a variation, an improvisation. They lock completely. You cannot move your fingers. The woman in the corner weeps.

Continue the story.

Have fun.

by

Laura

I'm Laura. I started Novel Kicks back in 2009 as I wanted a place to discuss books and writing - two loves of my life. As someone who has anxiety, these two things give me, and I am sure countless others, a much needed escape.
There is a monthly book club, writing exercises, prompts, reviews, author interviews, competitions and guest posts. I cover many genres and I hope there is something for everyone.
I grew up by the sea in Dorset and currently live in Poole with my husband, Chris and three cats. I love writing and have a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing from Falmouth University. I am writing my first book. If only I could stop pressing delete. Chris has threatened to stop it from working. Haha.
I have always loved creative writing since I was in first school and would very much like to meet my teacher, Miss Sayers, to say thank you for all the encouragement she gave me then.
When not writing, I love reading, cats, Disney, singing (I can't sing but this doesn't stop me,) and falling into a good TV show or film. If I could step into any fictional world, it would be amongst the characters in ABC's Once Upon a Time.
I love reading many genres and discovering new authors.