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Interwoven – (not quite) Trifecta Week 88

freyathewriter 21 Comments

Below would have been my offering for week 88′s Trifecta challenge word, which is ‘band’ except I didn’t use it as a verb – whoops! Too much rushing, not enough time and reading on a smartphone! As you will see from the relevant blog post, the challenge is to write between 33 and 333 words of fiction, non-fiction, poetry or prose, based on the 3rd definition from the Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary. This week the 3rd definition of ‘band’ is:

– to gather together: unite <banded themselves together for protection>

Here’s my offering below – I hope you like it! Please check here for the other entries!

I’m going to leave this piece as it is though, since it means a lot to me.

*****

– Interwoven –

The sisters stood, arms slung around one another’s waists, motionless in the soporific heat of the summer dusk.

They had done it. They had reached the end of a day which at its start, none of them had secretly thought they would achieve – not without falling by the wayside, not without splintering with exhaustion and despair.

In the middle of the triumvirate stood the eldest, uniting them all. Battered by the implosion that had threatened to shred them all to pieces, she felt old, so very old, as the sun drowned itself in the evening sky. She knew that grey hairs had silvered her dark mop in the past few weeks, that new lines had etched her once-smooth forehead.

Badges of honour, she thought.

Despite everything, despite the tearing at their flesh as they had said their goodbyes, she felt a tiny glint of happiness deep in her chest. She had regained her sister after all these years. She had found a bond with a step-sister she had hardly known, not until recent weeks.

She imagined a band of bright steel, sparkling in the now violet gloom, linking the three of them together. Their separate pasts had made them who they are. Their united futures would honour the man they had each loved in their own, unique ways.

She raised her eyes to the stars above, grasping the lifeline of her sisters a little closer.

Thank you, Dad.

Trifecta

Forever Yours – Friday Fictioneers

freyathewriter 32 Comments

Here is this week’s entry into the weekly challenge brought to us by the lovely Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. Here are the rules: Use the photo as inspiration, write a hundred(ish) words – and share! Here goes my offering for this week – and I welcome your comments again!

Copyright - Douglas M. MacIlroy

Copyright – Douglas M. MacIlroy

– Forever Yours –

“It’s OK, sweethearts. I’m OK.”

I stood, an observer unobserved, watching the procession pass only an arm’s length away, unreachable now.

I reflected on the past weeks. The journeys to and from the hospital, the incessant beep-beep-beep of the monitors, the silent-footed nurses.

I smiled, remembering the whispered words of love, the touch of gentle hands on arms, the kisses on unresponsive cheeks, the vigils far into night after night after night.

All along, they loved me. Their love was returned, a thousand fold.

“I am not gone, I am always with you.”

Our bodies are but the temporary shell. Our spirits are what remain.

____

Click the blue froggy to read other writers’ offerings – and enjoy!

Raw – 100 Words

freyathewriter 10 Comments

I have discovered a new writing challenge, and am going to try it on for size, see how it fits, look at my reflection and assess the situation 🙂

100 Words is another weekly writing challenge over at Velvet Verbosity. The lovely lady behind the blog and challenge launches a word or phrase at us on a Monday and gives us a week to play with it any way we like, as long as it is exactly 100 words long. We can then link up our post using the nifty linking tool, have other challengees read our posts, and best of all, read theirs! So, here goes…. I hope you like it!

*****

– Raw –

They didn’t quite make it.

The girl, grasping the tiny little boy close to her chest, ran like fury as if wild horses were chasing her down. I, who had grown up feral amongst the gang of the abandoned, who had learned to fend for myself instead of embrace a care-free childhood – I had never witnessed this before. This urge to protect, no matter what, was alien to me.

Here, I saw love for the first time. I saw it in her terrified face, I saw it in the tiny boy’s fists grasping his sister’s shoulders. I saw it raw.

*****

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