The old woman happened to look out of the window and she noticed a young girl picking one of her flowers. She went outside but she looked more upset than angry.
“I am so sorry. I never meant to upset you.”
The woman crossed to the girl and helps her to put the flower in her hair. “You haven’t upset me, my dear. You have just reminded me of things I thought were our past mistakes.”
“Oh?” The pair crossed a bench where they sat down.
Natalie’s eyes misted over with unshed tears as she recalled her past. “I did exactly the same thing you did until it seemed like all of the flowers had disappeared. All of us girls picked our man. Then all of the men became soldiers and most ended up gone forever like we thought the flowers had been. It took a long time, but eventually all of their graves started to grow flowers.” She waved a hand towards the patch of flowers. “There lies my Billy.”
“Then this flower really belongs to you.”
“Keep it, my dear. It just means that cycle is starting once again and, apparently, we have not learnt our lessons yet.”
Written for Sunday photo fiction
Really well done Angie. This piece is sad and a bit heartbreaking even. Loving men who die in war. That war still continues and girls will always love men who end up going to war and dying. We never learn not to war.
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Wish we could learn that one! Thanks for reading.
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I like that. Maybe one day we will learn our lessons and we won’t have to have flowers given by soldiers. A lovely story Angie.
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Hopefully the cycle will end one day! Thanks for reading and hosting.
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You’re welcome 🙂 One day it will. Unfortunately, it will probably be after humanity has made itself extinct.
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Brilliant writing Angie. Really touching and relevant take.
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Thank you very much, glad you enjoyed it!
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Wow! Good job. Very stirring.
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I hope that it made a lot of people think about the ways of the world today 🙂 Thanks for reading.
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Billy will forever live in in the blossoms. Very touching.
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He is definitely going to live forever in those flowers 🙂 thanks for reading.
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Such a touching story, and I love the imagery and symbolism. I got a little confused at the beginning about which “she” was which, but I think I got it figured out in the end. Nicely done!
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I probably should have given the young girl a name! Thanks for reading.
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Very touching story. I love the paradox of the bright yellow flowers and the sad story.
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It was the first thing that came into my head which probably says a lot about me! Thanks for reading.
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