Story Time Tuesday - Chapter 19 - THE END!

If you missed TALES FROM HOME - Chapter 18 just click here to read it.


TALES FROM HOME - Chapter Nineteen

As Julia thrashed about in worry, her sisters gathered around her in fear.

“Julia, we’re here! We’re here!” they murmured to her, while patting her hands and stroking her hair.

Julia’s eyes remained tightly closed as tears trickled down her cheeks.

“Julia, please wake up. Wake up!” her sisters cried.

Riley’s gray-blue eyes met Morgan’s dark blue ones in shared concern. Is there anything more distressing than discovering that love is not always enough to comfort someone you care for?

Julia’s eyes remained tightly closed and she continued to whisper through her tears. “I promise I’ll find enough food. I promise I will keep you warm and safe. I promise…”

Riley could not stand to watch her sister suffer. “Morgan, get Julia’s treasure rock. Hurry! Hurry!”

Morgan quickly looked on the cluttered marble top of the small dresser. Finally her shaking fingers found the heart-shaped rock. The polished, smooth surface gleamed in the room’s dim light. The gold, amber and purple ribbons of color seemed to glow in Morgan’s hand.

She hurriedly carried it to the side of the bed where Riley was busy tucking the soft, worn quilt more closely around her sister’s thin, freckled shoulders.

Without a word, she pressed the warm stone into Julia’s hand and tightened her fingers around it.

For a moment nothing happened.

And then Julia stopped crying.

Her whispers quieted.

She lay still beneath the peaceful comfort of the old pink, purple and green quilt.

Her sisters looked at her fragile hand clenched tightly around the heart-shaped memory.

And then, very slowly, Julia opened her faded blue eyes.

Her sweet face, now freckled with age spots, lit up when she saw her sisters gathered around her.

The small, quiet room in the nursing home was filled with her treasures and crowded with her memories.

In the thin wavering voice of an old woman, Julia said, “Riley? Morgan? Do you remember…

At the edge of a pond…

At the edge of a woods…

At the edge of a mountain…

Where the happy little house stood?”


THE END

A new story, "Writing Fiction" starts next week

Thank you. When I committed to writing a continuous story on a weekly basis I was a little unsure of the whole process. But all your kind comments and support really made this a fun thing to do.

This little story ended up so far from where I had planned it to go. Often I fought against the words in my head trying to make it stick to the outline...but finally I just gave up and let it wander where it would.

I am starting a much longer story now. I like the beginning but I am only two chapters in so I'm not sure where it is going. But I hope you continue to read along with me.

(c) 2010 Jennifer R. Matlock
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