Advice to My Son
By Pamela Schloesser Canepa
(c) 2020
Even when your world’s
turned upside down
There is soil to plant a flower.
Even when change is hard,
Inside you have the power.
And when times seem the darkest,
There’ll be sunshine within the hour.
Photo credit, (c) Yinglan.
He was always at this park on Saturdays. I’d notice him whenever I took my dog for the nightly walk. After I’d lived here for about nine months, I noticed the weather didn’t matter. He was here every Saturday evening, and only Saturday evenings.
His clothing was shabby; his cheeks, red. I imagined on the nights I didn’t see him, he must stay at the shelter. One night I stopped to talk.
“Hey, I’m Fran. Isn’t it a little cold to be out here?”
“Doesn’t bother me. My lady and I, we’d come here every Saturday night. I can picture here right there. We’d sit on that bench.” Shivering, he showed me a smiling photo of her on that bench.
“When is the date over?” I asked, worried he might freeze.
He looked at a broken wrist-watch. “Half an hour.”
“I don’t think she’d mind leaving early. It’s a bit cold. Can I walk you to the shelter?”
He shrugged and smiled sadly. “Yeah, there’s soup. Maybe she’ll show up next week.”
**172 words
***The challenge is to write a short piece of flash fiction in response to a provided picture prompt of 100-150 words (+ or – 25 words, thank goodness :)). You can view other stories or jun the fun at FFfAW.
Thank you for stopping by on a snowy evening! You never know the difference you could make. Of course, it is not snowy here, but I can imagine. 🙂
pamelascanepa 