Apology

Apology ~ 100 words

Side by side, we walked beneath the stars. Our footsteps on the weathered boards, the ocean dancing beneath our feet – those were the noises that occupied the vast silence between us. We reached the end of the pier and stared out at the ocean.

“I’m sorry.” I could hear the weight of our past in his confession. In the eternity of a second, I considered all the words he hadn’t said. Smiling, I reached across the emptiness and took his hand.

“I forgive you.” I didn’t mean it yet, but I knew one day I would.

We walked back together.

The Pilgrimage

Special thanks goes to The Capillary for all her help and encouragement. I highly recommend reading some the excellent flash fiction she has posted on her blog.

---

The Pilgrimage ~ 437 words

Shadows crept across the wall as the five pilgrims walked in silence. Each carried a single red rose that stood out like a drop of blood against their drab attire. They picked their way through the rubble until they could go no further.

They waited beneath the age-worn statue of a soldier. Chelsie began to sob; her tears leaving shiny white tracks on her dirty cheeks. Those nearest to her stepped away, only one of them glancing at Chelsie as she did so, lines of worry creasing her face. Everyone else busied themselves with looking elsewhere.

Above the sound of her sobs, they heard someone approaching. A man, dragging his right foot with each step, drew near and it was not long before he stood in front of them. He stood as straight as a stick as he looked them each over and his gaze rested finally on the sobbing young girl. “Why so sad little one, are you not honoured to be here?”

She nodded as she began to cry harder still. Coming closer, he put an arm on her shoulder. “This is no place for a child like you. Such a sad place for one so young. What’s your name?”

Sniffing, she finally looked up at him and smiled tentatively. “Chelsie”

“You’ve come a long way, Chelsie. You should be proud of yourself.” He patted her head and looked at the other four people that were with her. At his gaze, they all glanced away. “My name is Colonel James McElhanney. You can call me Mac.”

Chelsie’s eyes went wide as she stepped away and looked down at the ground, her smile melting. The rose in her hand shook and a single petal drifted to the ground between them. Mac reached out and lifted her chin until she was looking up at him. “You should lay your rose down to honour the fallen. That is what you have come to do, isn’t it?”

Trembling, she leaned down and touched the rose to the ground near the base of the statue. Looking up, her eyes searched his before releasing the stem. He smiled and placed her arm in his. “That is such a sweet gesture.”

Mac took one last look at the others and made a sweeping motion with two fingers towards them. With a hurried step, he led Chelsie away. They hadn’t gone far enough for her to miss the sounds gunfire. She shuddered.

“Their sacrifice shall not be forgotten.” She said in voice too quiet to be heard. The words that had been said so often meant more now than they ever had before.

Where I am

Have I been working on any of the things I mentioned in my last post? No, I have not. I have been contemplating and thinking about other writing related things. My problem is a matter of applying my butt to a chair and working till I'm bleeding on the keyboard. I just suck at it. As much as I want to write, I keep putting it off.

I am trying to get myself back on track and to find a way of re-focusing myself, but it seems a little hard. I don't even understand why I keep putting off something that I love doing. Something that I want to do.

I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be picking up Grounds to Leaves again, but I could be wrong. I am working (or attempting to work on) a short story from last year, another short series currently titled "Under the Maple Tree" and I'm trying to nail down some novel plots. A re-work of something from NaNo 11 and still trying to 'perfect' my NaNo 09 novel for draft number 3.

Any good suggestions on finding ways to get myself to do some applying of the butt to the chair? Maybe I should finish putting my office together and re-setup my desktop so that I can type in a room dedicated to that purpose. That might just help some. Organization is something that makes it easier for me to work, but not something currently found in my office/storage space.

I wanted to leave you with a small quote from something I'm currently working on, but instead I'll leave you with something from a story started and abandoned. Maybe I might pick it up again one day....

Jai sat up straight, trying to catch her breath, her hand paused halfway to the knife that she kept hidden beside her bed. There was no sound that disturbed the darkness, no light that penetrated into her room from the single window above her hammock. There was nothing that could have disturbed her beyond her own mind.

As the last foggy fingers of sleep slipped away, she began to relax. It had been a dream, a particularly disturbing one, but just a dream. It was not something she was prone to. Her dreams were usually fleeting and jumbled, quickly dissipating with the rising of the morning sun. She wondered at the significance of it.