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Sugar Sky, by Angela Carlton

18/6/2021

 
When the phone rings in my college dorm, sometime after dawn, it’s a piercing sound like a hot kettle. Outside my window, I see a sugar sky, the view is grainy cloudy-white. My Mother’s crying on the line. I can’t make out the words until I hear “accident,” and “in the river.” I flinch then and go numb. I know it’s about my sister.

They say she jumped from a swing and never came back up until they pulled her from the water. Now, she’s lying in a grey room hooked up to those damn machines. The last time we spoke I didn’t tell her that her zest for life always made me look closer at the bigger picture.I didn’t tell her she gave me hope. We’re only a little over a year apart, but she guided me. My world was always brighter. Our mother’s feeble, fragile, unstable with her main purpose being, “find a man who fills the holes.”

Mostly, Mom’s in her bathrobe waiting for her government check. I watch the clouds roll across the sky with ease. Still, there is no sun or warmth on this day. There is no magic trick that can erase all those holes, but I R-I-S-E.. I move from room to room to room until I am ready to drive those winding roads that will finally lead me back home. ​
Susan F. Reid
18/6/2021 12:30:33 pm

Angela,
Good characterizations of the mother and the one daughter who is so different.

Angela Carlton link
18/6/2021 01:35:44 pm

Thank you, we live and we learn through joy and pain.

Pauline Rendall
18/6/2021 03:34:51 pm

A beautiful story, very poignant and believable.

Jim link
18/6/2021 03:41:08 pm

Vivid descriptions here, well told tale. I think the last line really sums it up as she tries to ready herself for those "windy roads" back home.
Nicely done.
Jim

William George Sells
18/6/2021 04:32:37 pm

You can feel it. So well done!

Pamela Kennedy
18/6/2021 07:39:08 pm

You captured those painful moments so well...

Ashley Smallwood
19/6/2021 02:59:52 am

Very good! You can feel the emotions of the characters.

Sue Clayton
19/6/2021 06:03:36 am

You drew me into these characters, Angela. May her sky be sugar-sweet as she makes her way home.

Mary Wallace
19/6/2021 04:52:49 pm

This was sad and beautiful and so well written.


Comments are closed.

    Longer
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    Longer Friday Flash Fiction Stories

    Friday Flash Fiction is primarily a site for stories of 100 words or fewer, and our authors are expected to take on that challenge if they possibly can. Most stories of under 150 words can be trimmed and we do not accept submissions of 101-150 words.


    However, in response to demand, the FFF team constructed this forum for significantly longer stories of 151-500 words. Please send submissions for these using the Submissions Page.

    Stories to the 500 word thread will be posted as soon as we can mange.

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    One little further note. Posting and publishing 500-word stories takes a little time if they need to be formatted, too.
    ​Please note that we tend to post longer flash fiction exactly as we find it – wrong spacing, everything.

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