Home Fires Burning
146 words
Home is where the heart is. That’s what they say, at least.
Never has a sight been so welcome as the house before me. I am home. I have survived years of war, of suffering, of agony. I have survived the end of innocence.
As I walk down the familiar path, the time-worn bricks covering what used to be gravel, and before that, dirt, I think of my father. My grandfather. His father. And generations back, all of us fighting. Some of us coming home.
My knees buckle and I sink to the ground, kissing it, thanking it for one more day on earth, one more day with you.
Then I see you, between the columns, your face turning towards me, your body in the arms of another man.
And I know it’s true, what they say. You can’t go home again.
I raise my gun.
From our fearless Flash Friday! Fiction leader, Rebekah Postupak:
Winding down our novel prompts (just four more after today!), it’s Gone With the Wind, of course: Margaret Mitchell’s sweeping American Civil War drama starring a proud and rather snotty plantation owner’s daughter who does everything in her power to survive the war and hold on to her family home.
Story elements (base your 150 [+/-10] word story on any TWO of these elements; be sure to tell us which two you chose. Reminder: please remember the Flash! Friday guidelines with regard to content; and remember please do not use copyrighted characters).
* Conflict: man v man, man v society (not gender specific)
* Character (choose at least one): a plantation owner’s daughter, a racketeer, a beautiful woman who never does anything wrong, a noble soldier, a hot-tempered child, a slave whose cruel situation is never acknowledged, a pair of mischief-making twins
* Theme (choose one): desperation, determination, slavery, society/class, women’s rights
* Setting (choose one): the American South during the Civil War, a war-torn city
What do you think? I chose the noble soldier, and the themes of desperation/determination. I’m actually surprised at my own ending, considering how anti-gun I am, but there it was. Now the question is, at whom do you think he was aiming that gun?
Wanna read the other selections? Here you go!