Flash Fiction - Friday Double Take

For the 8 August Flash! Friday, I ended up writing two pieces (although I only posted “Beyond the Woods”). Both were in some way inspired by the illumination from The Talbot Shrewsbury Book.

Beyond the Woods

Maggie placed lilies on Henry’s grave. The locket around her neck showed a faded photo of them on their wedding day. Sixty years had passed without her truly noticing. No one had told her that was what it would be like. They’d vowed to stay together forever. Even after death.

Leaning heavily on her cane, she walked over to the ancient oak tree where they’d met. She took a small red book from her pocket and read out the unfamiliar words. The air rippled silver as a doorway opened.

The mortal years fell away from her as she stepped through into the woods of the world she’d left behind. She stared back at the grave where she’d left her heart. No one told her that forever could be so short. No one told her life could be so long. No one had told her the price she would have to pay if she ventured beyond the woods.

From The Talbot Shrewsbury Book

My Margaret

Alfred stared at the finished illumination in front of him. The wedding of the king and queen was important, he reminded himself. But it did not fill him with any emotion. How could he deliver his best work when all he though of was the new grave that didn’t even bear a name.

“It does not look like the queen,” John said, peering over his shoulder.

“Of course it does,” Alfred countered. It looked like his queen, his Margaret. He tried to forget that her beauty would soon only be bones in the dirt. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

The small portrait of her he carried around was half-worn. In it her face was as young as the day she married another man. But she had worn the posy he’d left for her. She would always be his.

This would be the Margaret people would remember. In the heavenly paradise he’d see her again.

“My Margaret,” he whispered.