Flash

Halcyon Days

Written for Friday Fictioneers.
The challenge: to write a story of 100 words or less,
as inspired by the photo prompt below. Here is my story.

Photo Prompt © Susan Rouchard

After the wake, a few of us went back to our sister-in-law’s house. A question tap-danced in my brain: now that my husband’s brother was dead, was his widow still our sister-in-law or will she eventually be erased from the familial slate, ties severed, connections lost?

The room which they call ‘the office’ was a confusion of books, photo albums and memorabilia piled high like Babel.

Flipping through yellowed snapshots, we spotted her, the widow, in every image 
. halcyon days when we all spoke the language of youth and happiness 
. and my question was answered.

She is family.

NAR©2024
100 Words

This is Jim Capaldi with “Old Photographs”

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.

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THE VIGIL

She was much too young, too ravishing to be a widow.

The essence of propriety, she sat on a chair at the foot of her husband’s coffin, graciously greeting those who came to pay their respects.

Her husband’s beloved Adagio in G Minor played softly in the background.

A tear escaped and she dabbed her eye with a lace handkerchief. Her stepson, her husband’s grown son, stood behind her, a conciliatory hand lightly on her shoulder.

His thumb discreetly caressed her velvet neck.

NAR © 2023
83 word requirement