By R.S. Nelson
I maneuver through the remnants of my mother’s time in this house: floor to ceiling piles of newspapers and boxes, broken microwaves, papers, tons of photo albums, discarded clothes, and plastic containers full of spoiled foods. Memories of growing up here assault my senses and my eyes dart toward the door, daring me to leave again.
But my mother’s picture on the mantelpiece stops me.
Guilt sticks to my throat like glue, so I grab a Budweiser from the fridge and let the liquid slowly unglue the guilt, pushing it down, down, down, hoarding it along with all my other feelings.
Great work. Fits so much into 101 words. And relatable.
Thank you for your kind comment, Ed! I appreciate it!
So relatable – including the guilt!
Thank you for reading, Faith!
That’s tremendous – the idea of hording feelings. A VERY strong concept and fully realized in this tiny work. Giving readers the images of the crowded and spoiled home first – which we not only can picture clearly, but (speaking for myself) add our own touches to – makes the transition to hoarded feelings both smooth and powerful. Will be thinking about this one for a while.
Thank you so much, K F!
A very clever view of hoarding.
It does, however, also make me wonder of what “cleaning out” will mean in a paperless future.
That’s a great question, Cheryl!