Friday, February 10, 2012

knowing it

Trifecta Challenge--Your task this week, should you choose to accept it, is to write a love scene in no fewer than 33 and no more than 333 words excluding 33 forbidden words:  stroke, quiver, whisper, hold, say, entice, moan, sigh, embrace, nibble, kiss, excited, taste, dance, passion, love, intimate, thigh, soft, hard, lips, heart, mind, beating, racing, music, candle, hair, wine, beach, fire, lust, desire.

(Side of the highway on a winter’s night.)

Wrinkly hands tapped ash out of the driver’s side window of the old Chevy truck.
Grace had pulled over to the shoulder of the road and stopped the engine, listening.
The song.
The one that had been played at the school recital oh so many years ago.
She recalled it had just started playing when he sat down on a folding chair next to her. A stranger, then.
Deep inside, however, she had known there would be no more empty chairs next to her ever again.

Now, years later, it was just a song on the radio--played for the masses.
Grace thought angrily to him, "You can never be condensed to lyrics of a song . They do not express the curve of your smile, the movement of your hands, the depth of our lifetimes...You saw my most sacred moments. How is it I must now know them alone?”

Suddenly
A gust of wind came and snow blew silently through her open window, covering the empty seat beside her.
And she knew the chair wasn't empty.
Of course it wasn't.

15 comments:

MOV said...

lovely piece, I often wonder this when a special song comes on or a coincidence is too in-my-face ... we are all connected, even the ones that have died.

best,
MOV

barbara said...

love never ending. :)

Lena said...

Chills. well done.

Unknown said...

So lovely. Really enjoyed this one. We all see reassurances that we're not alone.

Carrie said...

Beautifully done.

Scarlet said...

Great take on the prompt...I like that the chair wasn't empty ~

madhumakhi said...

A cold absence filled by cold snow. Beautiful.

booguloo said...

It's nice to know that we are never alone.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Oh, I so love this........love that the seat beside her wasnt empty after all.

Harry Nicholson said...

Lovely story; it holds and causes me to want to know her better. It could become longer.

Maxwell Mead Williams Robinson Barry said...

vivid piece...

keep up the excellence.

The Gal Herself said...

Poor Grace. But of course he's still with her. Nicely done!

Anonymous said...

I loved the eerie conclusion and her frustrated demand of the dead.

karen said...

So haunting. The remembrance. the last part gives me a chill. (In a good way.)

Trifecta said...

Thanks so much for linking up this weekend. Remember, this weekend’s entries are being judged by the Trifecta community so make sure you visit the site to register your vote! Hope you can join us for Monday’s prompt!