Now I am home I can ease back into the routine of being around my UK-based family and, of course, of writing.
This week's photograph for Friday Fictioneers was taken by Rochelle herself and posted on her blog https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/ Follow the Blue Frog link from there to read stories from other Friday Fictioneers. After you've read mine - and left a comment if you can!
THE SHOE
We were on a half-term
break, walking along a beach, when Alice ran up to me. “Look what I found, Mum!”
It lay in her hand, soggy
and salt-encrusted – a small shoe with a barely legible name written inside –
an Arabic name on an Italian beach.
I write Alice’s name in
her shoes too, but the fear of losing clothes at school hadn’t been this mother’s
worst nightmare.
“Why are you crying, Mum?”
I shook my head helplessly
and Alice ran off again.
How do you begin to explain such tragedy to a five
year old?