photo prompt from Flashy Fiction
As if muffled by the blanket of white outside, the house was quiet except for the soft crackle of the fire in the fireplace—and Sarah’s gentle humming.
Moving silently through the motions in the kitchen, her heart felt light. Circumstances hadn’t changed—yet, looking out the window and seeing the fresh snow did her some good. Well…that and what she couldn’t see underneath the snow.
“Mom?”
Robert was awake. It was so good to have him home—but Sarah wondered how long it would be until he was really there. His voice didn’t sound the same. His words, not clearly enunciated, were few and far between.
“Mom?” he called again. “Are…you…there?”
“Yes, Robert—I’m here in the kitchen. I’ll be right there with some soup for you, Honey.”
Placing everything on a tray, Sarah rounded the corner to the family room where Robert had been sleeping by the warmth of the fire. She pulled up short as if seeing him again for the first time. She was glad Robert was looking the other way.
Her eyes moved slowly over his mangled and bandaged body. She looked briefly away, blinking back tears, glancing again out the window at the new fallen snow: it wasn’t just hiding the mangled barbed wire fencing that nearly took Robert’s life while snowmobiling; no…it was giving Sarah hope for fresh starts and new beginnings.
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Written for the photo prompt at Flashy Fiction.
echoes from the silence 