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26.5.16

THE SHOE - flash fiction for the weekend

I am back at home! Two weeks in Canada was long enough to get to know my fifteen-month-old granddaughter, but not nearly long enough to be close to her and her parents. Skype is wonderful, if you can work out a mutually acceptable time with a five hour time difference, but I shall miss the cuddles.
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?