Friday, September 4, 2009

#FridayFlash: Recording

*****

I press play and the past slides into the present, his voice light like a needle on a record. Hey sweet thing what’s it been--ten years? Then he clears his throat and laughs like I remember. I’ll be in town this weekend, yeah … something something …yeah, I’m getting married. And he jumps into chitchat about who’d have imagined, but it’s just static at the end of an old LP. My memory skips, hung up on all those nights we sat talking behind Meg’s house, the stars in multitudes like the years before us. Kids that we were, we didn’t plan. We didn’t act. We thought we had all the time in the world to find each other.

15 comments:

Laura Eno said...

The missed opportunities of youth - hopefully our later lives are planned better. :) It's good to see you posting to #fridayflash again!

Stephen said...

How sad that she kept the old recording to remind her of all those nights and the time they never really had. Why do people do that to themselves?

Thanks for sharing another honest truth about the human condition.

J. M. Strother said...

Wonderful little piece, Greta. Love's lost and might-have-beens are always poignant tales. Very well done here.
~jon

Tomara Armstrong said...

I feel my heart breaking all over again...
~2

Shannon Esposito said...

Ah, and who can't relate to this? Very nice snap shot of love and loss.

Anonymous said...

Oh I remember this from before. I liked it then, I like it now. Such a lot compressed into so few words.

There's something here that triggers an echo is so many people's lives - and you catch it perfectly.

Nicely done.

Anisa said...

Sad, that last line...

"We didn’t act. We thought we had all the time in the world to find each other."

Greta Igl said...

Thanks, everyone, for reading and commenting. Sorry it took me a few days. Crazy busy holiday weekend!

Greta

judy b. said...

What a lovely and succinct capture of a regret and longing for the past prompted by an unexpected event in the present. This line is particularly evocative for me, a person conjured by 2 defining traits: "Then he clears his throat and laughs like I remember."

Alan said...

Very succinct and emotionally charged. Good job.

Unknown said...

Oh, this is lovely and really struck a chord. Who doesn't have a recording stored somewhere in our hearts, taken out now and then for a listen?

Nicely done.

Chris Chartrand said...

I lovely piece. Such emotion for so short a story.

Linda said...

Shivers. Great piece. Left you a small token of my admiration; come by to pick it up when you have a chance... peace, Linda

dan powell said...

A touching piece. The narrator's yearning speaks beyond the boundaries of the piece. Cool.

Jodi MacArthur said...

You have this way of weaving emotion into your pieces. Everything I read from you just blows me away.

My favorite line

'his voice light like a needle on a record.'