Psyched! 5 Flash Fictions About Mental Things

 

By Rachel E. Nichols

Psyched! is available in PDF form here:
Psyched! 5 Flash Fictions about Mental Things 

March 2021

Short, short stories related to psychiatry and the social effect it has on people. Whether set apart as “mentally ill” or viewing others through that lens.

In “Paranoia” a married couple see a psychiatrist – for the wife insists her husband is losing his grip on reality. Cyber drugs come into play in “Mrs. X,” allowing a middle-aged woman complaining of side effects to be monitored round the clock. “Dr. Hatto” is a retelling of a dark ballad about an evil bishop, but it’s set in modern times with a psychiatrist in place of the clergyman. The other flashes are “Full versus Empty,” a melancholy vignette of a woman realizing how hopeless her life is – even outside the psychiatric ward. And a humorous monologue “Toxic Women” in which a would be pick-up-artist laments his crazy exes while cozying up to a young female in a bar.

Biography

Rachel Evelyn Nichols lives in Pekin, Indiana, with her cat Abby. She attends a local Church of Christ (non-instrumental.) She has taught and tutored a variety of ages for more than a decade after obtaining her BA in English from Buena Vista University in 1999.