William Meets Alexander - Flash Fiction
Updated: 2 days ago
Greg Luti’s flash fiction “William Meets Alexander” follows two men from very different worlds who cross paths in an ordinary moment — a brief, charged encounter that quietly challenges everything they believe about status and success.
“Are you the king who is known to walk across oceans and beat armies of all sizes? Even other kings envy you, I hear.”
“I come for the book I had asked for some time ago.”
“Oh, that was you? I thought it was the other Alex…”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m kidding. I’ll go get it.”
William goes to get a copy of The Iliad.
“Here you go. Must be fun walking all those miles in sandals. Loneliness on top only ever knows itself, I imagine.”
“The road that none have gone before is empty… yes.”
“And yet the only friend you had on that road says nothing to you.”
William gestures to the book.
“The Iliad, a myth just for you….”
It makes you wonder what a king is if a myth does not make him a god. Nothing more than a king in a castle no one ever sees.”
“Myths are written about those who leave the castle and lead their people from the front.”
“Myths are fabrications of the world, falsehoods of broken promises. For how can a great man ever show empathy when he is never like others?”
“You measure greatness only in the physical, but it is much more than that.”
“Yes it is. All greatness needs tragedy, for who is Achilles if he doesn’t fight?”
Alexander pays William and takes the book. “Thank you for this.”
“You know what part of the Iliad I like the most?”
“No. What?”
“When Homer asks, ‘Do kings listen to the peasants for counsel or to reinforce their own kingship….’ Makes you wonder…. Enjoy the book.”
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