PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz
Thanks to Rochelle for hosting Friday Fictioneers. If you’d like to join in, click here.
You’ve Never Left Me
Claudia chartered a boat to sprinkle your ashes at sunset. Media-ready she appears in sunglasses, a black cleavage-enhancing dress, high heels. At the boat, deck shoes await. She’s planned for everything. Her two children drift after her.
“Dad hated boats,” our daughter says.
She takes my hand, her blue eyes, so like yours, scanning my face. She’s waiting for me to break down as when I heard you died.
Last night, we devoured images of you before I replaced your ashes with ones from the fireplace.
I may have left you, but you’ve never left me.
end
Sascha Darlington 10/6/2017
Thanks for portraying the greatest reality of life, so beautifully and how it’s so much harder on the ones left behind. The closest remain with us even when they are long gone- in our tears and smiles .
Your writing is so sublime,Sascha. I really admire it and feel inspired, every time I have read the privilege of reading.
Sorry, thats* I have the privilege of reading🙂😀
I was tick;ed by the idea of substituting the ashes
I love this, it says so much about all the characters in so few words.
Superb.
Dear Sascha,
You’ve layered a lot of story between the ashes. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Sad and beautiful at the same time. Wonderful.
This is eerily scary. Half of my husband’s ashes are still in a Coke bottle (long story you can read about should you wish – https://adelectablelife.com/2014/12/29/a-little-heart-to-heart/) as part were scattered in a lake as he requested and the other part are to go to another place where he loved to fish. I just haven’t found someone to take me there…
road trip! All of the Friday Fictioneers will take you there.
Ya baby!!
Sublimely beautiful! Loved the idea of switching the ashes 🙂
Thank you. Sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve go to do.
You’ve conveyed beautifully an intriguing mixture of emotions between the characters. They sum up the ambivalence of the feelings the narrator has for the dead man. Very clever writing!
And, as if that wasn’t enough, you have the ‘homespun’ wife putting one over the glamorous, media-savvy Claudia by switching the ashes! Great work, Sascha!
Thanks, Penny. I appreciate your insights! 🙂
I’m wondering what they did with the real ashes?
I suspect the ashes are in an unlikely container until Mother and Daughter find a better spot for his resting place.
Thanks. 🙂