By DOLORES STEWART

FLASH FICTION:IT WAS at the hairdresser's yes that time remember when Fitzy met Madame with a country house in Deauville ah yes Deauville I know it I know it well I often went there when I was young long before the war broke out so many people so many celebrities walking sur les Planches always someone to recognise toujours une tête connue so respectable très très gentil how I would love to see it again Madame at once at once mind you invited her to stay yes yes bien sûr she was driving down with her husband that very weekend ah quelle chance and so it was arranged Fitzy with her titian hair newly dyed just as she liked it just as it was when she was young joined her new friends Madame et Monsieur so kind n'est-ce pas set off from Paris in the evening sun but alas they never arrived this is true on the way an accident my dear perhaps Monsieur fell asleep at the wheel perhaps a mechanical problem who knows Fitzy was killed instantly that time remember on the road to Deauville.

Flash fiction will be a regular item in The Irish Times.E-mail a story of no more than 500 words to flashfiction@irishtimes.com