Short Story

Dismissed

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

Elizabeth traced the rim of her wine glass, the crimson liquid mirroring the flush in her cheeks. For seven years this table, this cafe, this seaside motel had been their sanctuary. Now, it felt like a gilded cage. Mack hadn’t shown. No frantic last minute apology text either.

She never imagined a future with Mack, a life beyond stolen weekends and whispered desires. Even so, Elizabeth knew they had something deeper than the meaningless lunchtime quickies her girlfriends so carelessly laughed about. Now she felt foolish and wondered if those same friends knew about her and Mack. The idea was mortifying. She’d poured years into Mack, years her husband hadn’t noticed were missing. She’d become someone else, someone vibrant and alive. And now, she was just … gone.

Elizabeth motioned for the waiter, a young man with kind eyes, and ordered another glass. Loneliness, a familiar but unwelcome guest, settled beside her. This place, once filled with the warmth of their shared laughter, now echoed with the hollow sound of her own solitude.

Hoping against hope, Elizabeth checked her phone; the blank screen stared back, one final humiliation. She stood up, imagining pitiful glances and muted murmurings behind hands.

As she walked out into the bustling afternoon, the sunlight blurred through her tears. She was adrift, off track, a child’s faded balloon absentmindedly released, abandoned in the vast and unforgiving stratosphere. The once vivacious woman had been dismissed and the one who remained was even more alone than before.

NAR©2025
250 Words

This is “Town Without Pity” by Gene Pitney

The Unicorn Challenge-18/04/25

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.

37 thoughts on “Dismissed”

  3. Oh Nancy, how sore.
    That balloon image – and ‘Loneliness, a familiar but unwelcome guest’ – such aching emptiness.
    Beautifully written and desperately sad.
    I want to reach into your story and tell this woman not to let other people define her self worth – not an indifferent husband nor a thoughtless lover.

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    1. Excellent comment, Jenne; you have a unique talent for zeroing in on the pathos of these stories.
      In the image you provided this week, I saw a poor soul who’s had the life sucked out of them, someone used and abused pathetically. It happens often and it’s got to be a such a sad scenario.
      I’m pleased to know you enjoyed my story. Thank you for your extremely gracious words, Jenne.

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    1. Thank you, Sis! It’s got to be just about the worst feeling in the world to have something like this happen. We all experience it to some degree, having to deal with the users and abusers in life. Thanks for an excellent comment; it really is a great song!

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