Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 17, for Thursday the seventeenth of October 2024.

Sudden Autumn

by Elizabeth Guilt

Lily loved the oak tree in their new house's garden. After a day of customer complaints swamping her optical feeds, connecting with nature was so important.

Stepping outside, she almost dropped her tea. The oak's branches were bare against the June sky, drifts of leaves piled brown on the grass.

She yelled up the stairs.

"Jase! Have you split up with your girlfriend again?"

A low moan, almost a sob, echoed back down. She sighed. Jase was so selfish.

Outside, Lily ran her fingers over the rough bark until the control panel popped. She wrenched the dial back to midsummer.

I've only just realised that this is the second drabble this October to feature a Lily. This Lily is, of course, not the Lily from "Don't Let Go", she just has the same name.

Years ago, I accidentally wrote a 10,000 word story in which two main characters had the same name. I did wonder why my beta-readers kept getting confused.