While cleaning out my room this week, I uncovered a stack of papers containing short stories and flash fiction that I had written last summer. With most of the writing I do on scraps of papers, I end up grouping them together in small piles and stashing them somewhere that I won’t look for nearly a year later, if not longer. After going through this newfound pile, I picked out a few that I’d like to share here on my blog in the coming weeks.
Scroll down to read the first…
She stared out into the open, arms crossed under her leaning body. The stone railing held her upright, but nothing sheltered her from the sparse but steady rainfall coming from above. The rain clouds moved languidly, gradually making their way toward the last remaining traces of sunlight that she could discern in the far distance. Slowly, her mane of chestnut hair soaked up each raindrop, her clothing turning a deeper shade as it too, drank up the rain. From miles away, thunder rolled loud and deep, the lethargic grumble rolling its way across a blackening sky.
Still, she kept her arms crossed against the rough grey stone, sinking her body further into the stance. Rainfall could never perturb her. With only the terrace spanning before her, there was nothing particularly intriguing to see; nothing that she could not see on any other day in far better weather. Of course, she knew this was so, but staring out in these conditions was something in and of itself. The moisture in the air could not gather on her skin and face like this, nor the nearly non-existent breeze whisper in her hair, nor raindrops kiss her eyelashes on any other type of day. She could not feel the Earth weep, hear Her low groan, nor smell Her dewy tears in any other circumstances.
The rainfall increased, a heavy sigh from the clouds releasing the warm water from above her. The thunder grew louder, creeping closer to her safe spot on the balcony. Beyond the walls enclosing the terrace gardens, she easily could see a thick pocket of trees, a single sparrow darting from a distant rooftop awning, into the thick, deep green foliage.
Rain fell heavier upon her narrow shoulders, seemingly washing away her sins and misgivings as easily as it watered the Earth. Each droplet from the downpour worked toward erasing her fears; her hates; her distrusts, sweeping them away to the soil far below to be purged and forgotten.
Lightening cracked overhead, the illuminating force of nature glowing against her face. With her eyes closed slightly, she straightened her back, turned her face upward, and smiled.
***
X,
Emily
