For every daily prompt, i will be writing on the theme: "The Empty Chair".

If you missed my last freewrites on the theme, here are the links from latest to last:-

1. The Empty Chair #4 - (5 minute freewrite challenge) [prompt: Cigarettes ]
2. The Empty Chair #3 - (5 minute freewrite challenge) [prompt: Cracker]
3. The Empty Chair #2 - (5 minute freewrite challenge) [prompt: Paint]
4. The Empty Chair #1- (5 minute freewrite challenge) [Prompt: hardboiled minds]

The latest Day 105 - 5 Minute Freewrite: Thursday - Prompt: elephant.

So here i continue the "Empty Chair" trail. I hope you enjoy reading it. Thanks again to @mariannewest and ya'll freewriters who keep upvoting and sharing in this trail

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Prompt - Elephant

It didn’t help that food was served early, now the rest of Ann’s family, her three brothers and their wives and kids, was taking their place at the dining table. Jeff tried one last time.

“If you want to talk about it,” he started, but she cut him off, almost angrily, “No, Jeff, she said, “I am well.”

But that was obviously not true. Neither was it for everyone else. The somber silence, only occasionally broken by the rattling of forks and plates was proof.

And it continued until 7-year old Claire, Ann’s nephew inadvertently pointed out the elephant in the room. “Isn’t Aunt Elsie coming?”

Every head for the first time looked up from their plate.

“Don’t worry dear,” Ann snapped, “It is her choice to come or not to come!”

Jeff knew his wife didn’t mean that. He saw her glance at the two empty chairs beside them, and he knew Ann wished Elsie her estranged twin sister was in one of them.

The two had not spoken following, and since the events of the family’s last gathering, just as the family had never really talked about that day.

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The Empty Chair Continues....