Rose
This story was written as part of a creative writer’s guide I wrote as a TA in 5th year, as an example for the prompt “A young english woman is given a rose when a man comes to tell her that her husband has been seriously injured in the war, and may not survive the night.”
Tei brushed her fingers against the edges of the rose. The soft golden candle light flickered gently as a breeze picked up. She hugged her coat closer around her self, trying to keep in what ever warmth had not yet been stolen from her body by the wet English fog. The rose’s delicate velvet petals brushed against her check, sending shivers down her spine. The breeze carried the sent of it’s sweet nectar to her. She breathed in it’s delicate aroma, and sighed remembering for the umpteenth time how very far away he was. She felt her eyes moisten, but didn’t bother to try to stop the tears from coming. Her breath caught for a moment in her throat as she imagined again the bullets ripping through his flesh. No. She had to stop those thoughts. She had to be strong, for him. A single silver tear rolled down her cheek, slowly following the contours of her youthful visage. It dropped from her angular chin to linger gently in the tender caress of the vermilion folds of the blossom’s head like a single argentile gem of dew. It sat for a moment there, suspended as so in time and memory, before falling to the ice bound earth below. As Tei watched it fall to the frigid loam, all the emotions she’d been suppressing poured out. All her anxiety, anguish, anger and fear washed over her. They boiled up and spilled over, escaping into the glacial night in the forms of more fragile dew drops. Each frosted gem carried a piece of her broken heart. They each rested on the rose petals for a moment before joining their fallen comrades. The rose let them each linger for a moment there before making room for the next courageous patriot to march on by. Tei slowly let the pain take her and felt the desperation welling up inside of her, swallowing her mind in it’s raging white capped swells. She sunk to her knees, wondering if she’d ever see him again.