Wednesday Write-In: Shattered Memories

Shattered Memories


I was only a child when I realised that my father, a large and silent man, loved my elder sister more. She was beautiful, with blonder hair than mine, and with darker eyes the colour of melting chocolate. I couldn’t blame him. 

He travelled a lot for work and when he was away my sister spent a lot of time with me. We played with dolls and had teddy bear’s picnics in the garden, but sometimes she retreated into her room and wouldn’t do anything but read, losing herself in someone else’s world. 

At his funeral, when we were both grown up with little girls of our own, she spat on the coffin as it was being lowered into the ground. I quickly pulled her away from the small crowd who were all looking at her aghast. 
“Izzie,” I said, “what are you doing?” 
“Good riddance!” 
“What?”
“You know,” she said, looking over my shoulder at the countless graves behind me, “I never knew, not for sure, but now I do.” 
“Know what?” 
“That he never touched you the way he touched me.” 
“I…I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m glad you didn’t know. That was the whole point.” 

I lay a hand on her shoulder, but her dark eyes remained dry. She’d already shed all the tears she possibly could over her childhood spent pretending and protecting. All the memories of my childhood lay shattered at my feet. 

L. Besley

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This week's prompts

shatter  ::  wasp  ::  fresh bread  ::  sorry  ::  singed

This week I only managed to get in two of the prompts. I could've tried to work in the other three, but worried they would seem forced. 

CAKE.shortandsweet runs a write-in every week to writers to practise their skills, and get chatting to each other about their work. Everyone is welcome to join in, and the more people you tell, the more everyone will get out of it.