Flash Fiction by Mark Perry

The Most Common Side Effect

Robert had a problem and he determined to do something about it. The urologist gave
him a sample of medication for erectile dysfunction and stressed that the most common side has proven
to be headaches.
“If this works, I can handle a little inconvenience like that, Doc,” he promised.
That evening about thirty minutes after anxiously taking a pill, Robert witnessed a miraculous
resurrection. Excitedly, he leaped naked from the bath into the bedroom and showed his wide-eyed
wife. Her playful smile turned into a fretful frown.
“I’m sorry, Honey,” she said, “but not tonight. I have a headache.”



Mark Perry is a retired English teacher who currently practices law in Georgia. His most recent
work has appeared or will be appearing in Red River Review, Blue Ridge Literary Review, The Stray
Branch, The Germ, Boston Literary Magazine, and Parody.