Getting out of bed was the thing to do, she knew it, but her body refused to move. The quilt wrapped her in safety and warmth like a mother’s love, shrouding her from the high-contrast world lurking outside.
“Morning, love.” The mattress dipped as Tom clambered in next to her. His body molded around hers, back to stomach, knees to knees. The crisp scent of the morning air clung to his skin. “It’s gorgeous outside. Let’s go for a bike ride.”
Rose shut her eyes, as if that would muffle his voice. “I need to rest.” She felt his hope deflate, one more thing to feel guilty about.
“Remember when we went to Hawaii on our honeymoon?”
That startled her into opening her eyes. “But we didn’t…”
Tom touched her lips with an index finger still chilled from the autumn air. “We swam in the ocean and made love on the beach. You looked like a goddess in the moonlight.”
“But then that typhoon struck. It trashed the beaches and made the water too rough for swimming.” Her words banished pearly beaches and turquoise water into the depths of imagination.
“But a cruise ship picked us up so we wouldn’t be stranded.” Words trailed behind them in the ocean liner’s frothy wake. “There was a buffet every hour, and the one at midnight had a chocolate fountain. You dipped strawberries and cherries.”
“And blackberries?” she whispered, her taste buds tingling.
“Yes! Then we had margaritas and watched the world slide by from our deck chairs.”
“Until the boat’s engine caught fire, and we had to board the life boats.”
“That’s when the helicopter picked us up. They lowered a rope ladder, and you climbed up first. I was right behind you, making sure you didn’t fall. They flew us back to the mainland, and everyone was waiting to throw us a surprise welcome home party–your parents, your grandmother, my sister.”
Tears burned in Rose’s eyes. “It wasn’t…” Her voice cracked. “Not a welcome home party. A baby shower.” Her fingers flexed over her too-flat belly. “Mama made a quilt with ‘Hannah’ spelled out in pink gingham. And when Hannah came, you stayed in the room with me the whole time. They all were waiting outside. Her first cry, her first step, her high school graduation. Hannah was going to be a doctor, remember?”
Behind her, Tom trembled, and the tears that dampened Rose’s tangled hair weren’t all her own. “You won’t fall, I promise.”
His arms became iron bands squeezing the air from her lungs. Rose pushed him away and rolled over so he couldn’t hold on. “Go for a ride. I need to rest.”
More of Erin M. Kinch’s flash fiction can be read in Sporty Spec: Games of the Fantastic and is forthcoming in A Thousand Faces.
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18 Responses to “REMEMBER? • by Erin M. Kinch”
Comments
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February 22nd, 2008 at 4:50 am
That was a roller coaster ride.
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:21 am
Fantastic and heartbreaking!
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:38 am
This is beautiful writing, Erin. You bring alive the scene with the sensory information. I loved the words trailing behind the boat, the idea of the dream mixed with reality. Keep writing!
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:43 am
Damn! you broke my heart! Started out with a ‘ho-hum’ another whine-fest, turned into a beautiful expression of sharing love and hope and dreams and support and on and on and I felt uplifted, I was smiling, I was happy, I was ascending to Cloud 9 . . . and then you ripped it away from me and I dropped like a stone and smashed on the reef below.
Ouch! That hurt.
Nice transitioning, major roller-coaster.
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:21 am
Nice writing. Great use of NVC. Only let down by the final sentence.
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:24 am
Nice. I like how she almost gives-in, or lets go, and then clams back up.
Great story.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:06 am
Excellent. The reader knows but he doesn’t know until the end. Very true to life and well written.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:32 am
Break my heart, why don’t you? Nevertheless, this was lovely, even if it made me tear up a bit at the end.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:38 am
Wow, that was so good! And heartbreaking.
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:40 am
Very good, and so sad!
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:51 am
Yeah, what she said.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:07 pm
That was everything everyone has already said! So moving, hopeful, wistful, and heartbreaking. Love it. I want some more!
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
You guys are all so sweet. I really appreciate everything that was said here. Y’all made my day.
February 24th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Sad, but beautiful! And you used the name “Rose”, too.
February 28th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I’m puzzled. It looks like a joint fantasy, and that part I enjoyed. But she didn’t want the intimacy that it conjured, for no apparent reason.
February 29th, 2008 at 7:53 am
My bet is there was a tragedy. From the ending I would assume a child was lost, either that or there was an unability to conceive.
He’s trying to cheer her up with this fantasy but instead it’s just reminding her of everything lost.
March 8th, 2008 at 8:18 am
That’s right, Dauna. She had a miscarriage, and her husband is trying to help her snap out of her grief by remembering all they have to live for, but she’s too mired in grief to let him help her out.
May 4th, 2008 at 9:45 am
[...] “Remember?” was the third story I had accepted and the second one to be published. Every Day Fiction is a really cool publication that sends a piece of flash fiction to your email inbox every day. “Remember?” was the story of the day for February 22, 2008. [...]