Time.
Which is not actually an official piece of my flash novella. It was written for a 'full length' submission which is longer, but I decided to keep it in the same story because, well, why not?
Time
Grace had always led a quiet life. She's married young, right out of high school, but never once found anything to regret about it. She and her husband had known each other since they were children, and with time their friendship grew into something more. Grace had never been big on the romantics, yet somehow when Charles showed up with a watch, or a small bunch of fresh cut flowers, her heart couldn't help but flutter. After the wedding, Grace and Charles had moved into the next town over - Sandston - where Charles had found a job managing a small grocery and Grace was able to take specialized classes to help her find a position somewhere, perhaps as a secretary. In those times it was generally frowned upon for married women to work, but Grace and Charles had discussed it and decided to put off starting a family until they were more financially stable.
In the end, their family was never started. A lack of medical knowledge at the time kept Grace from ever knowing the true reason why, but she and Charles managed to live happily all the same. Instead, they used their savings to buy a house on the outskirts of town: one with a large yard and front porch that wraps the full length of the house. Grace took to tending the yard, and in a few years had a garden rivaled by none.
Grace watched the city of Sandston grow, although only a bit, to where the houses spread just a few blocks further than her own. The town she and Charles had grown up in was unrecognizable at this point, and areas that used to be farmland now shouldered the foundations of cities. The change depressed Grace somewhat, but she was happy with her life and proceeded onward with a smile.
Around the time Grace started into her 60s, a new family moved in across the street. They were a young couple, looking for somewhere less expensive than the city. The woman had long dark hair, and big, brown, smiling eyes. This contrasted greatly with her husband, who's dirty blonde hair sat awkwardly atop his head, curling in some places but not others. His demeanor seemed off-putting at first, but the way he smiled at his wife led Grace to believe there was not a mean bone in his body.
A few years later, the young couple welcomed a new addition to their family: a tiny baby boy. He had round, chubby cheeks and big inquisitive brown eyes. The couple had no family in the area, nor any family so far as Grace could deduce, so she decided to help as much as she could. Never having had children herself, Grace's knowledge was a bit limited, but having witnessed many children grow into adults in her time, she found ways to be useful.
Around the time the boy turned three, Charles suffered his first heart attack. The doctor recommended to him to retire and take it easy, but Charles was a stubborn old man. He had devoted his entire life to his grocery, and he wasn't ready to give it up. A year later, he suffered his second. That time; however, he wouldn't be returning home.
Grace fell into a depression she couldn't seem to pull herself out of. The young couple tried to support her as best they could - the father worked more often than not and the mother was still raising her son - but Grace didn't want to burden anyone and shut herself away in her house.
The grass started to dry up, and her garden began to wither, but Grace took no notice. She spent most of her time in bed, and the remaining time staring into space, remembering what once was. A year passed in this manner, until something unexpected and tragic occurred.
When Grace had finally reached the point where she was ready to give up on life, the woman across the street disappeared. This was news even Grace could not shut out. The son, now six, and had returned home from school one day to find the house empty. The police reports to the press were vague: a woman had gone missing, leaving her husband and son, most likely some sort of life-crisis where she took off with no note. Grace knew better. She always suspected a kidnapping, but dared not voice it for fear of further upsetting the family. Instead, she tried her best to put her depression at bay, while offering a helping hand to the now-single-father and his young son.
The son was surprisingly strong. He spent a few afternoons a week at Grace's, though she always suspected it was because the boy didn't want her to be lonely, not vice versa. When the sun would start to go down the boy would pack up his homework and dart across the street to his own house, where his father may or may not turn up for the evening. More and more, the father was drowning himself in his work.
Things progressed as such, with the boy visiting Grace less and less as time drew on, until finally the boy left for college. He'd managed to gt a scholarship to an out-of-state school, and as proud as she was that he was finally breaking out on his own, Grace once again succumbed to the familiar feelings of loneliness she had finally managed to forget.
As the months drew on, Grace lived day to day. She never did much, although she began to tend to her garden again. She spent the winter alone, and watched spring creep steadily in alone. Finally, on the cusp of summer, she watched the boy return from his first year at college. His house was empty, as it generally was, but Grace couldn't help but feel a twinge of excitement at his return. Not wanting to smother him, Grace decided to wait until the next afternoon to pop in and see how things were doing.
****
That evening the dark seemed brighter than usual, if possible. Grace picked at her small dinner, while running through scenarios in her head. She supposed she should invite the boy - Sam - over for dinner. He probably hadn't had a home cooked meal in ages, and she doubted immensely that his father could be bothered to cook, if he even knew how to begin with.
As she washed her dishes and set them out to dry, Grace let her mind wander. Where were those old cookbooks she had once upon a time referenced until the pages began to fall out? What time did the super-center in town open? She could always stop in at the small grocery closer to home, but it always brought back stinging memories. The lights in the kitchen seemed to dim, but Grace brushed it off as her age.
In her bedroom Grace changed slowly into her nightgown. Just as she closed her closet to make her way to the bathroom, the lights flickered again. This time was more obvious. She peeked out the window at the top of the stairs on her way past to the bathroom. The sky was clear and the stars were shimmering wonderfully. This puzzled Grace, but she had experienced much more bizarre things in her time, so she brushed it off.
The lights in the bathroom flickered several times while Grace was washing her face, and several more when she started on her teeth. She decided it was most likely due to a problem with the power lines, and there were probably men up the road somewhere working on it. If she had owned a computer, perhaps she would have checked online, but that was one of those things Grace just couldn't seem to get the hang of. Her daily newspaper and the television seemed to suit her just fine.
Grace returned to her room. Early to bed, early to rise. The bed creaked as she sat down on it, but before she could lay down all of the light in the room pulled into one corner. To say the lights went out would be misleading. It was as though all of the lights in the room - the hallway, also, and perhaps the entire house - moved to engulf the far corner of the room from where Grace sat.
The light condensed further and further, until it resembled the shape of a human. It was almost blinding, but the more Grace stared, the less it hurt her eyes. The light started to move toward her. Grace did not feel threatened, but rather, overcome with a sense of comfort and bliss. As the light continued to approach, gliding across the room, it became more and more human-like, until it stopped directly in front of Grace, inches from her, in the shape of Charles.
Grace stared in awe. It looked just like Charles, and when it opened it's mouth to speak, it sounded just like him, too. If there had been anyone else in the house, they wouldn't have heard a sound. But Grace listened intently to the figure, her husband. After what seemed like hours, the light began to dissipate.
Grace glanced around herself. There was no sign anything had happened; the sky was still turning dark and all of the lights were still on. Cautiously, she got up and flipped the switch on the other side of the room. Nothing happened. She walked to her bed and sat down again, staring into the darkness for some time more.
Bright shafts of light peeking through the blinds woke Grace the next morning. She squinted around the room, but everything was just as she had left it the night before. Her mind flashed briefly to Charles, or whatever had visited her the night before. Realizing how unreal the whole experience was, Grace shrugged it off as a dream. It wouldn't be the first time she'd had one about her late husband.
After getting dressed, Grace made her way downstairs to the kitchen. The sun was shining unusually bright that morning. As she reached for the refrigerator door, Grace noticed her hands were paler than usual. The sunlight almost seemed to shine straight through them. Again, she ignored this revelation and passed it off as nerves.
Throughout the day Grace's energy seemed to drain faster than usual. She was old, but generally everyday activities weren't too much of a strain on her. She felt worn after cooking breakfast - just eggs and toast - and had to sit for a few minutes after finishing the dishes before she could work herself into standing up again.
Grace decided to put off tending to the garden that morning. She would do it the next day, she decided, and besides, she wanted to prepare a dinner to welcome Sam back. She drove herself down to the larger grocery that had been built in town, and picked up enough food to feed a small army. She returned home, set the meat to marinade, and began washing vegetables. Grace noted that her hands looked even paler than they had when she woke up. She even imagined she could see through them in some spots. She chuckled to herself. Perhaps she was going a bit crazy in her old age.
Upon finishing the preparations for dinner, Grace decided to take another rest. She sat down in the living room, intending to catch her breath and then head across the street to check on Sam. When she sat down, she decided to hold her hands up in front of her face. She was worried about how pale they had been throughout the day. Her heart gave a leap and ached terribly when she could only see the faint outline of the shape of her hands. Her breath caught, and she glanced hurriedly down at her feet. Where her indoor shoes should have been was nothing but floor. Her pants were starting to fade just around the knees.
Grace let out a muffled cry. She didn't want to startle anyone, and was still convinced that she must be losing her mind. She tried to stand, unsuccessfully, and toppled to the floor. Her legs, apparently, had disappeared completely. She could no longer stand, much less walk, and so she attempted to drag herself across the room to the phone. At this point there was nothing remaining of her hands, and her arms were starting to disappear, too.
Before Grace could reach the phone, although with what she would manage to use it was the last thing on her mind, her arms faded completely. She threw her weight and rolled onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. Her heart was still aching, and her gasps were short. Soon, everything in her vision began to turn to white as her face began to fade, too. The last thing Grace thought about before disappearing completely was whether or not she would soon see Charles.
Part 3: Missing Piece
Part 4: Hurry Up
Time
Grace had always led a quiet life. She's married young, right out of high school, but never once found anything to regret about it. She and her husband had known each other since they were children, and with time their friendship grew into something more. Grace had never been big on the romantics, yet somehow when Charles showed up with a watch, or a small bunch of fresh cut flowers, her heart couldn't help but flutter. After the wedding, Grace and Charles had moved into the next town over - Sandston - where Charles had found a job managing a small grocery and Grace was able to take specialized classes to help her find a position somewhere, perhaps as a secretary. In those times it was generally frowned upon for married women to work, but Grace and Charles had discussed it and decided to put off starting a family until they were more financially stable.
In the end, their family was never started. A lack of medical knowledge at the time kept Grace from ever knowing the true reason why, but she and Charles managed to live happily all the same. Instead, they used their savings to buy a house on the outskirts of town: one with a large yard and front porch that wraps the full length of the house. Grace took to tending the yard, and in a few years had a garden rivaled by none.
Grace watched the city of Sandston grow, although only a bit, to where the houses spread just a few blocks further than her own. The town she and Charles had grown up in was unrecognizable at this point, and areas that used to be farmland now shouldered the foundations of cities. The change depressed Grace somewhat, but she was happy with her life and proceeded onward with a smile.
Around the time Grace started into her 60s, a new family moved in across the street. They were a young couple, looking for somewhere less expensive than the city. The woman had long dark hair, and big, brown, smiling eyes. This contrasted greatly with her husband, who's dirty blonde hair sat awkwardly atop his head, curling in some places but not others. His demeanor seemed off-putting at first, but the way he smiled at his wife led Grace to believe there was not a mean bone in his body.
A few years later, the young couple welcomed a new addition to their family: a tiny baby boy. He had round, chubby cheeks and big inquisitive brown eyes. The couple had no family in the area, nor any family so far as Grace could deduce, so she decided to help as much as she could. Never having had children herself, Grace's knowledge was a bit limited, but having witnessed many children grow into adults in her time, she found ways to be useful.
Around the time the boy turned three, Charles suffered his first heart attack. The doctor recommended to him to retire and take it easy, but Charles was a stubborn old man. He had devoted his entire life to his grocery, and he wasn't ready to give it up. A year later, he suffered his second. That time; however, he wouldn't be returning home.
Grace fell into a depression she couldn't seem to pull herself out of. The young couple tried to support her as best they could - the father worked more often than not and the mother was still raising her son - but Grace didn't want to burden anyone and shut herself away in her house.
The grass started to dry up, and her garden began to wither, but Grace took no notice. She spent most of her time in bed, and the remaining time staring into space, remembering what once was. A year passed in this manner, until something unexpected and tragic occurred.
When Grace had finally reached the point where she was ready to give up on life, the woman across the street disappeared. This was news even Grace could not shut out. The son, now six, and had returned home from school one day to find the house empty. The police reports to the press were vague: a woman had gone missing, leaving her husband and son, most likely some sort of life-crisis where she took off with no note. Grace knew better. She always suspected a kidnapping, but dared not voice it for fear of further upsetting the family. Instead, she tried her best to put her depression at bay, while offering a helping hand to the now-single-father and his young son.
The son was surprisingly strong. He spent a few afternoons a week at Grace's, though she always suspected it was because the boy didn't want her to be lonely, not vice versa. When the sun would start to go down the boy would pack up his homework and dart across the street to his own house, where his father may or may not turn up for the evening. More and more, the father was drowning himself in his work.
Things progressed as such, with the boy visiting Grace less and less as time drew on, until finally the boy left for college. He'd managed to gt a scholarship to an out-of-state school, and as proud as she was that he was finally breaking out on his own, Grace once again succumbed to the familiar feelings of loneliness she had finally managed to forget.
As the months drew on, Grace lived day to day. She never did much, although she began to tend to her garden again. She spent the winter alone, and watched spring creep steadily in alone. Finally, on the cusp of summer, she watched the boy return from his first year at college. His house was empty, as it generally was, but Grace couldn't help but feel a twinge of excitement at his return. Not wanting to smother him, Grace decided to wait until the next afternoon to pop in and see how things were doing.
****
That evening the dark seemed brighter than usual, if possible. Grace picked at her small dinner, while running through scenarios in her head. She supposed she should invite the boy - Sam - over for dinner. He probably hadn't had a home cooked meal in ages, and she doubted immensely that his father could be bothered to cook, if he even knew how to begin with.
As she washed her dishes and set them out to dry, Grace let her mind wander. Where were those old cookbooks she had once upon a time referenced until the pages began to fall out? What time did the super-center in town open? She could always stop in at the small grocery closer to home, but it always brought back stinging memories. The lights in the kitchen seemed to dim, but Grace brushed it off as her age.
In her bedroom Grace changed slowly into her nightgown. Just as she closed her closet to make her way to the bathroom, the lights flickered again. This time was more obvious. She peeked out the window at the top of the stairs on her way past to the bathroom. The sky was clear and the stars were shimmering wonderfully. This puzzled Grace, but she had experienced much more bizarre things in her time, so she brushed it off.
The lights in the bathroom flickered several times while Grace was washing her face, and several more when she started on her teeth. She decided it was most likely due to a problem with the power lines, and there were probably men up the road somewhere working on it. If she had owned a computer, perhaps she would have checked online, but that was one of those things Grace just couldn't seem to get the hang of. Her daily newspaper and the television seemed to suit her just fine.
Grace returned to her room. Early to bed, early to rise. The bed creaked as she sat down on it, but before she could lay down all of the light in the room pulled into one corner. To say the lights went out would be misleading. It was as though all of the lights in the room - the hallway, also, and perhaps the entire house - moved to engulf the far corner of the room from where Grace sat.
The light condensed further and further, until it resembled the shape of a human. It was almost blinding, but the more Grace stared, the less it hurt her eyes. The light started to move toward her. Grace did not feel threatened, but rather, overcome with a sense of comfort and bliss. As the light continued to approach, gliding across the room, it became more and more human-like, until it stopped directly in front of Grace, inches from her, in the shape of Charles.
Grace stared in awe. It looked just like Charles, and when it opened it's mouth to speak, it sounded just like him, too. If there had been anyone else in the house, they wouldn't have heard a sound. But Grace listened intently to the figure, her husband. After what seemed like hours, the light began to dissipate.
Grace glanced around herself. There was no sign anything had happened; the sky was still turning dark and all of the lights were still on. Cautiously, she got up and flipped the switch on the other side of the room. Nothing happened. She walked to her bed and sat down again, staring into the darkness for some time more.
Bright shafts of light peeking through the blinds woke Grace the next morning. She squinted around the room, but everything was just as she had left it the night before. Her mind flashed briefly to Charles, or whatever had visited her the night before. Realizing how unreal the whole experience was, Grace shrugged it off as a dream. It wouldn't be the first time she'd had one about her late husband.
After getting dressed, Grace made her way downstairs to the kitchen. The sun was shining unusually bright that morning. As she reached for the refrigerator door, Grace noticed her hands were paler than usual. The sunlight almost seemed to shine straight through them. Again, she ignored this revelation and passed it off as nerves.
Throughout the day Grace's energy seemed to drain faster than usual. She was old, but generally everyday activities weren't too much of a strain on her. She felt worn after cooking breakfast - just eggs and toast - and had to sit for a few minutes after finishing the dishes before she could work herself into standing up again.
Grace decided to put off tending to the garden that morning. She would do it the next day, she decided, and besides, she wanted to prepare a dinner to welcome Sam back. She drove herself down to the larger grocery that had been built in town, and picked up enough food to feed a small army. She returned home, set the meat to marinade, and began washing vegetables. Grace noted that her hands looked even paler than they had when she woke up. She even imagined she could see through them in some spots. She chuckled to herself. Perhaps she was going a bit crazy in her old age.
Upon finishing the preparations for dinner, Grace decided to take another rest. She sat down in the living room, intending to catch her breath and then head across the street to check on Sam. When she sat down, she decided to hold her hands up in front of her face. She was worried about how pale they had been throughout the day. Her heart gave a leap and ached terribly when she could only see the faint outline of the shape of her hands. Her breath caught, and she glanced hurriedly down at her feet. Where her indoor shoes should have been was nothing but floor. Her pants were starting to fade just around the knees.
Grace let out a muffled cry. She didn't want to startle anyone, and was still convinced that she must be losing her mind. She tried to stand, unsuccessfully, and toppled to the floor. Her legs, apparently, had disappeared completely. She could no longer stand, much less walk, and so she attempted to drag herself across the room to the phone. At this point there was nothing remaining of her hands, and her arms were starting to disappear, too.
Before Grace could reach the phone, although with what she would manage to use it was the last thing on her mind, her arms faded completely. She threw her weight and rolled onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. Her heart was still aching, and her gasps were short. Soon, everything in her vision began to turn to white as her face began to fade, too. The last thing Grace thought about before disappearing completely was whether or not she would soon see Charles.
Part 3: Missing Piece
Part 4: Hurry Up