Short Story, Wordle

The Family Way

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for Sunday Whirl Wordle – #732. Our
host is Brenda Warren and these are our words:
greed, tragedy, despair, presence, walk, calm,
strings, earth, all, spirit, vibrating, and heart.
Here’s where the prompt words took me.

Image by Me & Grok

The earth-baked walls of the family farmhouse trembled as the old man’s disappointment and anger simmered on a slow boil. Strings of accusations between his son and daughter cut through the still, heavy air in the kitchen.

“Greed!“ Eli Parsons spat at his sister, Ruth, his anger filling the room. “That’s all you ever felt for this place!”

The argument had started small …. recent will revisions, undivided land. Ruth’s calm facade shattered. Her eyes burned into her brother’s, her spirit as unyielding as his.

“You want to talk about greed?” Her voice dripped with sarcasm and rage. “You think I don’t know you and your wife want this whole place and everything in it for yourselves? You’re a self-righteous, lying, son of a bitch!

“Like you don’t, you selfish witch? You say you love this place when we both know you’ll sell it to the highest bidder and never look back!”

Despair sat rotting in old man Marcus’ stomach. How did it come to this, his children at each other’s throats over his house and acting like he was already dead. Had they forgotten he was right there in the same room? He thought about all those years ago how he and his new bride Eleanor would walk the fields together, dreaming and planning for the family they hoped to have. For the first time since Eleanor’s death, Marcus was glad she wasn’t here to witness this spectacle. Finally, he could take no more! He pounded his fists on the table shouting for quiet. The room fell silent .

“Not another word!” Marcus demanded. “First thing in the morning, I’m calling my lawyer. I’m writing you two out of my will. I don’t even recognize you anymore!”

Eli and Ruth were stunned and screamed at their father that he couldn’t do that to them, but Marcus wasn’t listening. He was staring at a golden glow in the corner of the room and felt his beloved Eleanor’s presence. The old man suddenly gasped and clutched his chest as his heart gave out. Then he collapsed on the kitchen floor.

No one flinched. No one tried to help.

The real tragedy that night wasn’t Marcus’ death …. it was the chilling calm settling over his children, relief vibrating through their bones.

NAR©2025

This is “Daddy Won‘t Sell The Farm” by Montgomery Gentry

Wordle 732

All text and graphics are copyright for Nancy Richy and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

38 thoughts on “The Family Way”

  9. You are a spinner of tales, and a good one at that. Have you witnessed this in the past? I have. My family, from 1967, always had a beach house in Port Aransas, Texas, the island. We owned many of them at one time or another, four, maybe five. The last one was built in 1980, a three-story affair with too many stairs to climb. I knew it would not be a home for old folks to live in. When my parents became aged and almost immobile, we took one last fishing trip to the house. I had to carry both my old parents up the stairs to the living quarters, it was a telling moment, for them, and for me. Five years later, they had both passed and my sister and I inherited the house. We both knew it was not a home that either of us could retire in, because of the stairs and the cost of insurance and the repairs needed after 20 plus years of coastal decay. I wanted to move there, at least for a while, she didn’t want that because then she couldn’t use it, and she refused to pay for any repairs which were substantial. We argued about it for a few more years, then mutually decided to sell the house. Sure, we made money because it was paid for, but we both lost a family legacy over petty arguments. When I see my parents, in Hevan, I will have to explain and hope they understand. I still haven’t.

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    1. Thanks very much for your lovely compliments, Phil. I greatly appreciate them.

      My sister and I did not have these problems when our parents passed. They were living in a beautiful ‘apartment’ attached to my sister’s house so there was no inherited property to deal with. I’m sorry to know you and your sister disagreed over you parent’s beach house. I can tell how much that place meant to you by the touching memories you shared. Many times parents think they’re doing the right thing by leaving something for their kids to share; it rarely works out the way they thought it would. As Ringo tells us, “it don’t come easy”. Thanks for this slice of life, my friend

      PS – Your parents already understand.

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