Noise - Micro-fiction
Image source: Stocksnap on Pixabay
It was 3:00 in the morning. She watched out the window. Had he been in an accident? Was he in a ditch somewhere? Or worse. A vision of his maimed body in his crumpled vehicle flashed before her. Helen pressed her fingers to her eyes to blot it out.
She replayed conversations from the day before, about his choices and habits.
He was on his phone too much. “Luke, honey. I’m talking to you. Can you please make eye contact? I feel like I’m having a conversation with your forehead.”
“Chill, mom. I’m in the middle of a game.”
Later, he took a trip to the store for pop. He had finally learned to drive and gotten his license after months of her pushing him. Nagging certainly worked in that case. “Back in my time, boys couldn’t wait to get licensed! It’s how they impressed the girls.”
But oh, he had bought that rundown sedan with money from his part time job, and she thought she’d lose her mind each time he went clanking around in that thing.
The conversation when he returned from the store was their last.
“Pop and chips? Honey that’s not good for you. And please, for the love of God get that car to the shop to have that horrible rattle-clank looked at.”
He looked at her, shook his head and was gone.
Her words echoing in her mind, she turned away from the window. But then she heard it. That beautiful rattle-clank sound.
Thank you for reading my very short story. Each week I write a 250-word fiction piece based on the week's Micro-fiction contest prompt. I run the contest, so I don't write them as entries, but just for fun. I love the challenge of writing a complete story within the tight limit of 250 words. The prompt for this story was "sound."
In this story, I wanted to capture the complexity of a mother's love for her son. Life experience is great fodder for fiction. It provides an opportunity to take our struggles and our pain and create a shared experience.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://jaynalocke.com/2019/03/10/noise-micro-fiction/
I can definitely relate to this piece! Only one more out of four who is not driving (even though he's old enough). Nothing as nice as that clanging noise, or in the case of my daughter the muffler noise ;)
Oh my gosh, so it's not just me. My son knows how to drive, but he's not motivated to go get his license. Evidently, it's not uncommon for boys these days.
Nope, not just you! I really don't mind him not getting it so that I don't have to worry.
Same here, although now that we have to drive him to work and pick him up when he’s done it’s getting ridiculous. 😁
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Those annoying sounds...... that you miss when they are gone.
Good write !
Thank you, @jacey.boldart!
And suddenly what you find annoying is like music to the ears. Still I will take my car to the shop I hear rattles I do not like to hear, it makes me nervous.
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