Yesterday I filled my flask with the sunrise. I crammed silhouettes of trees and power lines inside too. A few stray birds and contrails got swept up inside as well the first camellia bloom of the year. A clutch of skimmia berries sneaked in too, followed by a previously undiscovered footpath and the sound of the stream in spate, gambolling along beside me. Today I fill my flask with wakefulness. I add a small measure of ready-to-face the world. Then I screw the lid on tight, gaze at it for a while and take myself back to bed for the day.
I Found Myself Lost is one of seventy-five prize-winning flash fictions in the anthology Fuel, which was published to raise money for charities fighting fuel poverty. BBC Radio Bristol broadcast a recording of the story on Upload on 13 February 2023.