“You can’t just leave.” Diana threw down the plates and chased Eva to the door. Eva was out and gone before Diana could get into her coat and shoes. She pulled down a hat from the top of the shelf without looking and dashed into the snow.

Eva rounded the corner and Diana followed, leaving the door wide open behind her. “Come back here, young lady!”

Eva did not come back. She actually picked up speed even though the sidewalks wore a thin crust of ice. Hardly anybody was out to watch the mother pursue her daughter down the road.

Suddenly, Eva’s arm shot up. A cab rounded the corner and Eva jumped in. She flipped her mother off before she slammed the door behind her.

And then she was gone, and Diana was left behind on the sidewalk, huffing and largely alone. Only as she turned to make her way back to the house did she realize the hat felt strange. She took it off. It was left over from Christmas. Deelyboppers and reindeer horns sprouted from the top.

“Damn it Eva.” The air was too bitter to hide the thing, so Diana jammed it back on as she crunched home, grateful only that the same weather forcing her to wear it was keeping most of her neighbors indoors so they couldn’t see.
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Author’s note: One of the Challenges in Flash Fiction month was David Bowie day. I’m notorious for misunderstanding lyrics and songs in general. And when I heard this as a kid I had n-o idea what it meant. But damn, I loved it. And the thing that stuck with me was the bippity boppity hat (which was one of the few lyrics I could actually completely understand.) So whenever I hear Queen Bitch, I think not of anything sexual at all, but of deely boppers. And I have no pictures, sorry. So there you have it.