Goodbye was the word that jumped out from the scrawl.
Some of the phrases were lost forever, rinsed away by the rain or crushed to muddy pulp by my footprint.
I cursed myself for being so careless. But if it hadn’t slid beneath my boot, I wouldn’t have seen the words or cradled it in my hands as it dripped brown water between my fingers. I wouldn’t have carefully dried the fragile paper by the fire.
The letter held together, but what remained was fragmentary, shards of emotion nailed to the page.
It rested in my hands, light as a leaf, yet heavy. I looked around the room.
My books leaned drunkenly on the shelf where yours were missing. A dusty rectangle on the stand was all that remained of the television set. I remembered the conversation: you’d paid for it, you said, and by then I was too tired to argue.
I put the letter in a cheap frame and hung it on a vacant picture hook as I listened to the rain fall.
Day Five of Writing 101 and the challenge is to write about finding an emotionally-charged letter in the park – as briefly as possible.
A great exercise for me, as my fiction tends to rabbit on, and on, and on…
I enjoyed reading this. I like the way you write.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much- really kind of you
LikeLike
Such a sad but captivating tale. I think the brief story gives it so much more emotion, even though I’m left wanting to know more!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Alyssa.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great piece, I love how it captures the emotions…….but ‘were fragmentary, shards of emotions nailed to the page.’
Shards are shattered pieces, so nailing them to the page doesn’t quite read right to me. Consider…shards of emotions embedded into the page or ….shards of emotions staining the page.
LikeLike
Thanks for your positive feedback, Peter- very gratefully received.
LikeLike
This is sad which I’m sure is what you were going for. Great job on bringing a lot of emotion with few words.
LikeLike
Thanks, Marie- brevity is not a skill that comes naturally to me, so I’m on a steep learning curve 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person