I’ve been absent. I’m sorry.
I’ll probably be absent again. I’ll most likely be sorry then as well, but it’ll similarly most likely happen anyway.
I’m here today because my dear friend Tara called me out on The 100 Word Challenge, and as she was nice enough to believe in me, I feel as if I owe her a response. And here it is.
As always, I hope you enjoy…
The faded photo tittered unsteadily in aged hands, maudlin vibrations causing battered corners to softly crumble.
Within the picture, white teeth bursting through long-ago smiles had since bled unbeknownst, merging with yellowing faces now almost unrecognizable.
Drawing an unsure digit against each countenance, he confidently said aloud the name of his children in turn, sniffle-coughs blubbering occasionally interrupting.
The nurse, concerned over his heaving chest, attempted to remove the instigator from his grasp, beginning a struggle she just couldn’t win.
Victorious, he returned to his slack-jawed reverie, wistfully gazing. The photo was peculiar; the photo was all he had left.
Good to see you. <3
<3
i understand.
Please email me! Or text! I have been trying to find you. Please!
Touching piece
Thank you Ruby!
In death we have love and memories and, yes, photographs! Funny how, in the end, the material possessions, the shiny baubles, don’t really matter. What seems to matter most is Love. Thanks for an excellent 100 word story.
And thank you for reading along and enjoying. Death comes in many fashions remember, but you are right, in all of them, I think the baubles end up meaning the least.
How sad, to only have a photograph left.
Photographs and “what ifs.” Possibly the two things at least all of of us have at the end.
good to see/read you again. This piece is wonderful. Don’t go.
Thank you Barbara, and I’ll try not to… :)
You’ve touched on my greatest fear, here!
Good to be reading you again, Troy!
Having sort of lived it, I can tell you it’s survivable dear. So there’s that. And thank you :)
Got it. Touching enough on its own, but then you brought in Bowie, and I went to pieces. Well-done!
*Had* to do the Bowie Joe, had to. Thanks for reading along!
Photographs hold so many memories, sometimes they are all that’s left. And that’s why so may cling on to them. Nice. Ally
Truth. Thanks Ally!
Photos can call up so many more memories than what they show. Beautiful story, beautifully told. Nice to read you again. Do come back.
Thank you so much Renee – I truly appreciate your saying that :)
Moving and sad in a well-written way… I’m glad Tara coaxed you into the challenge. I disappear, too, for months on end and then return for a post, and disappear again. I get that.