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Cloud Stories

November 11, 2024 11 Comments

By Huina Zheng

As a little girl, her papa wove tales from clouds. They laughed as he spun stories; the sky was their canvas.

Years after her parents’ divorce, her papa faded into a distant, almost forgotten figure. When they met again in his care home, time had clouded his mind. He barely recognized her, yet his eyes still sparkled at the sky.

“See the White Snake there?” His fingers traced its shape in the clouds.

She gazed up and saw it. Then she realized the stories were his legacy, anchoring them to a shared past that still floated, untethered, in the vast sky.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mary Anne Gorman says

    November 11, 2024 at 6:36 am

    I love that line still floated untethered in the vast shy….. excellent writing

    Reply
  2. Lisa says

    November 11, 2024 at 10:47 am

    Beautifully poetic and poignant. Love it.

    Reply
  3. Michael W King says

    November 13, 2024 at 7:26 am

    Time slips by

    Reply
  4. Janet says

    November 13, 2024 at 9:21 am

    Sweet. A lovely picture of a relationship that will stand the test of time

    Reply
  5. Ed Kratz says

    November 13, 2024 at 10:27 am

    Excellent. Great imagery, Moving ending.

    Reply
  6. Pat R. says

    November 13, 2024 at 11:28 am

    Well written. A beautiful, touching story. Love the imagery!

    Reply
  7. Sue says

    November 13, 2024 at 11:50 am

    Vivid imagery. Thought provoking.

    Reply
  8. Margie says

    November 13, 2024 at 8:19 pm

    A gift to read this and cherish the memories that will always be in the clouds.

    Reply
  9. Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah says

    November 14, 2024 at 7:26 am

    This story works very well with it’s flow of language and images.
    Well rewritten.

    Reply
  10. Jane B Hirschhorn says

    November 15, 2024 at 11:54 am

    Beautiful, sad, evocative. Thank you.

    Reply
  11. Joana Figueiredo says

    November 20, 2024 at 2:35 pm

    Thank you for this piece. It touched a special corner of my mind.

    When my mother was a kid, her grandmother’s used to “wave tales” not from the clouds, but from the stars. Her favourite was about a shinning star that preservered after the sky was ripped apart by monsters. She named it Joana, which had nothing to do with anything astrology wise. Decades later, when it was time to name me my mother named me after that star.

    So yeah, stories are definitely part of legacies and I can only hope they continue to be enough clouds and enough stars to inspire us all.

    Reply

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