Prompt: A New Life Word Count: 1000 Genre: Contemporary
The formidable, invisible wall dividing the two families was crumbled by a thank you letter, hand-written, robin’s egg blue and soft from the postal delivery, among the tumbling, fresh wave of sympathy cards.
And ten years later, there was a still grieving daughter to be handed off, glittering in her off white gown to the next man who wanted to keep her.
“I still don’t know why you would pick Sean over my Riley,” a swirl of coiffed, salt and pepper hair hovered above the bride’s ankle, sliding on a shoe that could not be reached for all the crinoline. “He’s really the one that picked up the mess when your father left us alone.”
“He didn’t exactly mean to leave us, Mom,” Anna, a woman in cornflower blue silk, who did not care that it washed her coloring out a little, said to the swirl. “He died, okay? Crushed in a vehicle. His head came off, Mom. It came right the hell off.” She would have raised her bouquet in emphasis, but long stemmed calla lillies aren’t good for that effect. A nosegay would really have been better.