Short Story

Whisked Away

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for The Unicorn Challenge where
we are urged to get creative in 250 words or less.
The photo below is our inspiration; this is my story.

© Ayr/Gray

We were thick as thieves. Even though I had four sisters and many cousins, no one was closer to me than Anna. Born on the same day in the same hospital, people teased that we were separated at birth. For all our twelve years we had been best friends, never spending even a single day apart.

We both lived on the third floor of attached multi-family buildings in the Little Italy section of Brooklyn. Our adjacent bedroom windows overlooked the bustling street; we’d stick our heads outside and call each other’s names, promising to meet up on the roof or in the backyard under the grape arbor where we’d huddle together and whisper our most secret of dreams.

When Anna’s unruly mass of curls was cut short, I twisted my waist-length mane into a braid and lopped it off with my grandmother’s sewing shears. We attended the same school, walking hand-in-hand and sitting side-by-side, our desks touching. Where there was one, there also was the other.

When my mother suddenly announced my unscheduled visit with cousins in Pennsylvania, I was angry. I begged not to be taken from Anna but I was whisked away. Upon my return home two weeks later, I knew something dreadful had happened; Anna’s house was draped in mourning bunting. Scarlet fever had stolen my dearest friend from me.

To keep me from getting sick, mother had sent me away. I didn’t even know Anna had died. I wonder if she was frightened without me.

NAR©2025
250 Words

This is “Thick As Thieves” by The Jam

The Unicorn Challenge-04/04/2025

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for Nancy’s Notes 🖊️🎶, The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk, The Rhythm Section, et al., and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

42 thoughts on “Whisked Away”

  1. Sometimes twins are born in separate wombs. You evoke the sweet closeness of soulmates, the world where kids are free to be themselves without censure, and the vital but sometimes unrecognized safety net of great parenting. Stellar, woman!

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  2. What a beautifully told, oh-so-sad story, cara mia.

    I was thinking oh no, while she is away, her friend will have found a new friend to replace her. This was much worse! Brilliant, amica mia.

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    1. Mille grazie, cara mia. To have been replaced with another friend would have been heartbreaking, a crushing blow for a young girl but something one can get beyond in time, perhaps even grow and made stronger than before. Not so a death; we do not simply ‘get over’ the death of a dear friend or partner. Thank you for your passionate and empathetic comments, amica mia.

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      1. Si, si! Actually, it can be just as devastating to be replaced by another when you are young – but there is always a possibility of it returning. With death is is forever gone.
        I had this song playing in my head as I read your story.

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  4. What a tender story, Nancy! I love that, in her grief, your MC’s thoughts are still for her friend in her last hours — was she frightened.

    I was just telling a friend today how one of the most awful things in COVID was that people died alone. So so sad.

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  11. A lovely warm decription of the cocoon children live in – if they’re lucky.And of the outside protection by the adult.So much that’s not yet understood.A touching story, Nancy, with such a sad last sentence.

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    1. Thank you, Jenne. Children are innocents for such a short time. I’m not a believer in throwing them into the deep end; they’ll learn soon enough about the wicked world. Good balanced parenting is no easy task. Thanks for your thoughts, Jenne.

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  13. Poignant story. Children are sometimes lost in our adult world. I had Scarlet Fever as a child. I was a sick kiddo and missed most of the second grade. To make it worse, two kids in my neighborhood came down with the dreaded Polio Virus: one was sentenced to the iron lung for a year, and recovered, the other wore braces like Forest Gump. The 1950s were trying and dangerous times for our generation.

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    1. They were terrifying times for our parents. I also had Scarlet Fever as did my little friends. My Great Aunt Chesaria was the neighborhood shaman; she’d rub our chests with warm oil of wintergreen and draw birdcages on our earlobes in ink, making sure to leave the cage door open so the evil spirits could leave our fevered bodies. Those superstitions gave the adults hope while we kids were sure we were going to die. Sadly, some like Anna did.

      Thanks, Phil.

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      1. My sainted Grandmother, a Cherokee, self proclaimed medicine woman had all the cures. I spent most a month every summer on the farm and if I came down with an ailment, she would give me a dose of salts, put a poultice on my chest, wrap me in linen, like a mummy, tuck me into bed wrapped in quilts and I would be cured by morning. She also shook a chicken leg around my head, and burned Lemon Grass in the room.

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  14. A beautiful story and so sad …the things parents do to protect their children….do they always do the right thing….

    I remember having Scarlett Fever as a child…I was about four and missed being a bridesmaid at my eldest sisters wedding. 💜💜

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  15. when it happens this way (or any way )… even a single question feels too heavy … and at that age… I wonder if ” not really understanding” is a good or bad thing.

    nicely done , Nancy 🤍

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