Kim is hosting Prosery Monday in the dVerse Pub ~ she provided this line from poet Derek Walcott's Dark August ~~ to use in our prose stories:
“I would have learnt to love black days like bright ones.“
They met in a summer that shimmered ~ like vinyl ~ loud, spinning, full of skips they danced through. Nights were for dreaming big ~ days for chasing them. But the years grew heavier, quieter. Abby wandered ~ feeling restless, curious ~ while Brad began to crave roots.
Silence filled rooms where once there was music, now only echoes of what they didn't say. Abby laughed less, came home later. Brad cooked. Abby forgot. And still he waited ~ half hoping, half gone. "I would have learnt to love black days like bright ones" he said once ~ not asking her to stay, just wishing she'd want to.
She touched his hair as if it were old paper ~ smiling a tired apology ~ leaving before the kettle whistled. Now coffee steams in two mugs. One goes cold. Perhaps tomorrow she'll call. Or maybe we already know how this ends .... do we?
A ‘will she, won’t she’ Prosery, Helen, and I love the simile ‘a summer that shimmered ~ like vinyl ~ loud, spinning’. Such a shame that Abby and Brad had different futures in mind.
ReplyDeleteWhat a sad prosery, Helen! Beautifully written, though.
ReplyDeleteYvette M Calleiro :-)
http://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com
All the sharp images and actions of these two told quite the story! I especially like.. "now only echoes of what they didn't say."
ReplyDeleteHelen, good character studies, and how they interact within a relationship. I like how you worded the last line.
ReplyDeleteThe silence of a relationship dying has to be one of the most painful silences known to humankind. So well said.
ReplyDeleteThis was sad and moving
ReplyDeleteAh the restless vs roots is the telling line, unresolved sadly, a great story Helen.
ReplyDelete