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Monday, July 4, 2011

Heat - Magpie 72



Image Courtesy of Tess @ Magpie Tales

This week's image from Tess @ Magpie Tales is 'wheat field with rising sun' - Vincent Van Gogh 1889 - so here is a short fictional piece of prose called 'Heat'
To read other contributors to this prompt visit HERE
Heat  
It is August and hot, voices from the car radio fill our silence.  My brother Gerard looks out the back window, as if his eyes might take him somewhere else, out into the meadows with the rolled-up hay. I sit behind Mam. Being seven, my legs are shorter than Gerard’s.  Below the hem of my dress, my legs stick to the leather seat, making a peeling sound like sellotape when I lift them off. 
     We should be going someplace nice, we should have a boot filled with summer things, sandwiches, flasks of tea and club orange; but we have none of these.
     No one speaks. Mam sleeps; her stick arms resting either side of a sleeveless blue dress.  She wears Indian beads and a flowered scarf, covering her bald head.
     ‘I want to pee,’ I say.
     ‘Shut up,’ mutters Gerard below his breath.  He is angry, and I wish I didn’t know why.
     ‘I want to pee,’ I say, louder then.
     Mam groans between her world of sleep and our world of the car.
     Through the driver mirror, Dad stares at me, the whites of his eyes coated in their red trim.  I say no more, and hold myself.
     I don’t expect her to turn, but she does.  She looks tired, soft, and smiles, and as if by magic, she looks like Mam again, and we’re back at home, laughing, playing, washing dishes in the kitchen sink. 
     Reaching up, she removes her beads, handing them to me, like a present.  I close the clasp around my neck, and through them, I feel the heat of her on me.
     ‘Emily,’ she whispers before falling back to sleep.
     ‘Mam,’ I say, not expecting anymore.
*      *     *
     Now I warm the beads beneath my pillow.  Her heat will never leave me.

31 comments:

  1. wheeewww that was a journey, you had me in the back seat all the way with tears in my eyes

    brilliant summer magpie

    thanks for tweeting me but I think all the birds are asleep ...
    best wishes
    Isabel

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  2. Thanks Isabel, maybe we should have been up with the dawn chorus!

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  3. really sad but beautifully written , I'm glad you have your mums beads its the little things we value the most ...thank you for sharing

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  4. Lovey comment kez, but it is a fictional piece, glad you liked it.

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  5. That is an excellent short story. ♥

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  6. very real and lovely.
    what a creation.

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  7. so beautifully written- I could feel the heat

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  8. New follower here. Very well done. I may write horror, but stuff like this piece really moves me. Thanks for posting.

    -Jimmy

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  9. Thanks Kathe and James & welcome - thanks for following.

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  10. Such a touching and lovely piece. Felt like I was in that car seeing it all.

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  11. So poignant - a lovely piece of writing.

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  12. Lovely piece, Louise. Very striking imagery and I love the ambiguity of it.

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  13. Thanks for d comments Lolamouse,jabblog & derek!

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  14. A heart tugging write - exquisitely crafted.

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  15. Hi Louise - I think my attempt at following you last week didn't work so I am trying again.
    Isabel x

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  16. seems to have worked this time - I did it by copying your url and pasting it in!

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  17. Thanks Tumblewords & glad it worked out Isabel.

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  18. So sad...I, too, am glad you have your mother's beads.

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  19. Oh wow this made me tear up, beautiful story

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  20. bitter sweet, honest, and truly touching.

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  21. Thanks guys for your comments, very much appreciated.

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  22. This is writing at a very high standard, with a keen eye for detail. You know how to make images in your mind come alive in the reader's. Rare indeed.

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  23. This is an excellent piece of writing. Excellent. And I had the strangest deja vu when reading this... "Reaching up, she removes her beads, handing them to me, like a present."

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  24. Thanks HyperCRYPTICAL, and thanks Lucy too.

    Thanks Tess, interesting that feeling of deja vu.

    Really appreciate all your comments.

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  25. Startlingly (because of the ending) beautiful. A life felt in just a few paragraphs. Thank you.

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  26. Appreciate that very much ds.

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  27. I haven't read this one before Louise it's so moving and terribly sad. Brings back a lot of sad memories for me. Not a personal loss just from an observers point of view through my work. I've seen so many families crushed by the affects of illneses it's a hard road to travel. On a happier note it's beautifully written and so descriptive I can imagine myself in that little girls mind. Loved it, real tear jerker.

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  28. Thanks tattoodevil13 - I really appreciate your comments, especially in the light of how you have known and worked with similar experiences first hand.

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