Lemon and Salt

Our gracious host, Rochelle, is asking us to get
creative in 100 words or less using the photo
seen below. Welcome to Friday Fictioneers.
This is where the prompt took me.

The firewood bucket sat where Mama placed it the morning after the funeral – atop the hutch, unreachable, untouchable.

Papa had rubbed it every Sunday with lemon and kosher salt. We’d watch his weathered hands work the polishing cloth in slow circles, the copper glowing like the hearth.

Now it gathers shadows instead of firelight. Tarnish creeps across its sides like quiet grief.

Sometimes I drag a chair over, just to touch the wooden handle. It still smells faintly of wood smoke and Papa’s flannel shirt.

We bought a new log holder. Shiny. Practical.

Nobody polishes it on Sundays. Nobody will.

NAR©2026
100 Words

This is “Cutting Firewood” by James Gallagher Band

3 April 2026

^{Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.}