Welcome to this week’s Friday Flash Fiction
– photo inspiration provided by Madison Woods (thanks!)
Autumn Return
The boy and girl linked arms around the massive trunk of the oak. A bronzed September day filtered through the leaves and cast sighing shadow patterns on their arms, stretched to their limit.
“I see Mama’s initials carved, right by Dad’s,” said the boy.
The girl leaned her head back until she spied the scarred bark. “Do you think they remember being here?” She resisted the urge to let go of the boy’s hand to trace the “A” and “M”.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “We’re here for them now, and we will remember.”
They pressed their arms harder against the familiar wood, rivulets reddening the tender forearms. They hugged the tree, and so each other.
Leave your comments below, and remember to link to your site so we can visit!
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In other news, this week was full of highs and lows, sun and shadows. I think the Fall Equinox may have played a part in that, but I’m grateful that I was able to get a lot of work done, and spend some perfect moments with the family.
We put the good-weather days to best use by biking on the local trails, and trying some more geocaching. Rainy days caught me up on writing, schooling, and backlogged mystery show recordings. (Midsomer Murders, how I love thee…)
Super-exciting was my curriculum review of Math-U-See being accepted and posted on Homeschool.org – with its own page, no less!
I want to share some of the genius I stumbled over this week, so here we go…
Worth the Click
– a mash-up of the week’s noteworthy sites
Blackberry Lane Farms -The absolute cutest collection of Persian kittens anywhere! (I should know – they’re my mom’s)
The Bookaholic – a fun and informative blog with great book info and commentary.
Eileen Granfors – the Word Nerd pieces are great!
The Homeschool Truth – a humorous and well-written article from a homeschooling expert – a freshman!
Karen B. Nelson 
Loved the warm feeling your story left me with 🙂 That tree is in my front yard. It’s not quite so colorful yet, but with any luck it will be soon. The picture is from October last year and it’s a huge white oak that probably has heard a lot of secrets over the years.
My story is here: http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com/flash-fiction/found-100-words/
Thanks Madison! That is a pretty amazing tree you have to call your own! We have a lot of red maples here, but they don’t get as large as the white oaks. Still lovin’ Friday Flash – thanks!
Aww kind of sad but cute, too.
Thanks!
A lovely story, Karen. Reminded me of my childhood and all of the oak trees in my yard.
(Madison said to put links in the comments section so we could jump around, if I understood her correctly. Here’s mine. http://ironwoodwind.blogspot.com/2011/09/horse-latitudes.html
I didn’t use the picture. Will get with the program next week.
Aloha, Doug
Maholo, Doug! Thanks!
What a moving story. I love the beautiful photograph as well. I wish we got more autumn colors down here in Florida. Happy Fall!
Thanks! I have a sister in central Florida, and she says the thing she misses most about home are the trees!
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