*This piece is part of an ongoing short story*
You can read parts one through seventeen HERE!
The gray, floor length sheers billow with the force of the floor vent below them as Gladys opens the front door. She pauses. Other than the curtains, there’s no movement in the house. No sound. No Helena.
Her heart flaps.
She shouldn’t have been away so long. She should have left more food in the fridge. She shouldn’t have left her to her own devices. Maybe she should have told her where she was going…why she was going. Or better yet, brought Helena with her.
Unsure, she tiptoes to the kitchen counter to set the groceries down. The crumple from the bags scratches against the silence and suddenly, she feels like she’s wearing a buttoned-up raincoat on a hot day. Trapped sweat makes its way down her back as the realization that she must check Helena’s room engulfs her.
Blurry images of a face, glossy-eyed with blue-lined lips, pool at the bottom of Gladys’ spine soaking into the waistband of her jeans. Swills of pills, strewn bottles, creased sheets and dangling fingers wade through her watery mind. Flashes of flowers and cascades of cards, torrents of tears and wallows of whiskey wash over her, muddling at her feet.
She puts the signed papers on the counter beside one of the brown sacs and sits on the cool of the waxy tiles. She’d almost made it. So close only to have it whipped away. In an instant. The reason she’s still here. The reason she still tries. The reason she’s still a Harris, withdrawn.
But she remembers Sharona. Her tale of the policeman and his walkie talkie.
Gladys heaves her heaviness off the floor and flies to the answering machine, fumbling to push the stiff play button with its insistent flashing light.
No, she won’t find Helena in her bed. There will only be the aching, hollow space where she had once been.
I remain very intrigued…
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You have some wonderful and vivid scenes here, Hazy. Well done 😀
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I appreciate that feedback, Dianne. Makes me feel good! :))
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OK – I’m not sure I like Gladys but I’m starting to form an attachment to her.
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Gosh, that’s good feedback. Thank you! When writing (short) fiction…or I suppose any kind of fiction…in pieces and posting them onto a public forum, it’s so easy to look back and realize what should have been done sooner. I needed to endear you to Gladys a lot sooner than this, PC and your input will help me with the editing.
A million thanks!
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It’s difficult for me to read things in pieces so perhaps if it was in one time and place it would be different so it has little to do with your writing and more to do with my style of reading and understanding.
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