Things we count on

Competition Four Highly Commended: The Things We Count On by

He stole away with her heart, wedding-day slinking from her bed before dawn, leaving a sorry note propped against the cherry blossom posy she was to carry down the aisle.

She built a bonfire, threw everything that was his or theirs onto it, tossing the cherry blossom onto the pyre as a sacrificial offering. She kept the tickets for their Tokyo honeymoon.

When she returned, a cherry tree was rooted tall in the ashes of the bonfire.

Now, every morning she wakes to a tree clouded in spun sugar pink, inhales its honey or vanilla scent. The pink might be as pale as the icing on a three-tier cake, or garishly fluorescent, echo of the high-lit tracks she left inside wedding magazines.

By mid-morning, the garden is wedding confetti-petalled, knee deep pink, until the mounds of petals disintegrate, seeping joy, hope and love into her dandy-lioned gilt lawn.

At noon, the branches sag heavy with ripening purple-red fruit. If she bites into a cherry, there is only bitter sorrow on her tongue. Blackbirds and thrushes haunt the fence and hedges, impatient for the ripening. Squirrels bicker on the shed roof until her cat sends them scooting.

By evening the fruit is gone and the tree’s naked arms are open wide to the sky. The lawn is ankle deep in stones spat out by the squirrels, shat out by the blackbirds and thrushes. Squelching barefoot through the burgundy guano, pits grate between her toes. As she gathers a handful of stones for counting, she thinks of his mouth slurping bitter-sweet liquid from her cherry-juice-soaked feet.

She counts the way she did when she was six… tinker, tailor… the way granny taught her… solder, sailor… but no matter how many stones she collects… rich man, poor man…her counting always ends on thief.

 

 


 

 

Anne started writing flash fiction in 2019 and relishes the challenge of writing very short stories. Her stories have appeared in print and online, most recently at Retreat West, Flash 500, Reflex Fiction, Flash Fiction Magazine, National Flash Fiction Day, Lunate, Strands International and Bath Flash Fiction Anthology 2020. When not writing, Anne looks after the finances of a charity, and looks after, trains and competes her diva pony.

@anne_howkins

 

 

“Cherry blossom” by Hatoriz is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

 

 

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2 thoughts on “Competition Four Highly Commended: The Things We Count On”

  1. I liked the post holiday time framing of a day that began at dawn with the thief of her love stealing away. The natural lifespan of the tree tells us that years later she is still heartbroken and bitter. A good read.

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