Thanks to the vagaries of a busy life, I haven't posted any flash fiction in the past couple of weeks. My daughter asked me the other day when I was going to write another story for my blog, so I figured it was time to get busy. Thanks to Angela at Anonymous Legacy for sharing another great photo prompt for this week's Visual Dare. I'm excited to follow the links on her blog to see what everyone else wrote about it.
I hope you like this, Rowan.
Family
He moaned and rolled over, twisting the sheet around him like a shroud. His eyelids twitched as he watched the nightmare scene.
“Robert, don’t leave. Please.” Tears streaked down Martha’s cheeks.
“Don’t cry, little sister,” he said, pulling her to his chest. “You have to be strong to help Thomas take care of Mama. I’ll be back as soon as I can. I promise.”
Martha pulled away and patted his chest. Robert scowled. “You’re right. I have to get rid of that.”
Pulling out his pocket knife, the one his grandfather had given him when he was Thomas’s age, he sliced through the stitches holding the scrap of fabric to his jacket. He hoped it would be enough. He couldn’t do anything about the stitching holes that still faintly outlined a star.
His choked cry echoed as his eyes flew open. Thomas. Martha. Fifty years gone. He still missed them.
