Why? (Flash Fiction)

High fives and hugs to PJ and pixabay.com for presenting us with this writing challenge and photo, respectively. If you don’t know, I usually scamper around the 75-175 word limit. Today is no different (lol). I hope you enjoy the story below. Click on the link to check out other entries and more details about this challenge. This is also a response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Mentor Me.”

I leaned back against the mossy bark of a fallen tree and hummed to the glistening water laid out before me. Leaves that were greener than your eyes rustled in the breeze and flirted with my bare arms and legs. I closed my eyes and rubbed my skin. That used to be your touch.

As the trees around me groaned, I breathed in the scent of wild mint and almost tasted it on my tongue.

No warning, just a flutter of wings over my head, and there they were — weaving over and under each other with such grace. One gray and white. The other black, green, and blue. Max and Liz, or so I had named them after the kids we’d planned.

I lifted my face higher and held up a hand to block out the sun. When the light began to fade and new shadows littered the ground and my body, they kept dancing.

BAM!

I scrambled to my feet. My heart exploded as the black bird plummeted into the water. The ripples reached the shore.

I fell to my knees. The darkening sky might’ve cried then, too.

(189 words)