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101 Word Short Stories

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If Sorry Never Comes

November 7, 2023 5 Comments

By Huina Zheng

My family toasted my father on his sixtieth birthday, but I looked into my rice bowl—suddenly, I was no longer thirty, but ten, coming home and seeing my dog hanging from a tree in the yard, its skin already peeled. I was now the little girl looking at the dog stew in tears.

Dinner over, my father said, “You haven’t been home for a year. Can’t you stay tonight?” I shook my head, remembering how he’d enjoyed the stew. How, when I’d confronted him twenty years ago, he’d said, “Your grandfather did it,” and I’d replied, “But you let him.”

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kevin says

    November 7, 2023 at 7:04 am

    A grim story, well told. Kudos.

    Reply
  2. Gilda Candela says

    November 8, 2023 at 9:32 am

    Yes, some things are unforgivable and it’s memory so easily triggered. Beautifully and poignantly written.

    Reply
  3. PAulene Blazey says

    November 8, 2023 at 12:37 pm

    I really could have done without reading this. Should have had a trigger warning.

    Reply
  4. Mary A Gorman says

    November 9, 2023 at 5:04 am

    So well written. Man passes misery onto man

    Reply
  5. Lauren says

    November 9, 2023 at 1:56 pm

    Very well written

    Reply

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