“Mommy, there’s a hole in the world.”
“Is there?” Payne glanced down at Keith. He stared at nothing. Must be his imagination. She continued packing groceries into the trunk.
“Later, we can do go-karts. Or plant a family tree at the park?”
But Keith didn’t answer. He was watching a movie in the air. Horses pulled carriages, kicking up dirt in the sunlight. One, two, hundreds of cars spewed smoke behind them. The screen split. Above, an endless traffic jam under a smoke-choked sky. The lower screen showed sunlit apple trees.
“What’s your choice, go-carts or trees?”
“I wanna plant trees.”
A great story holding much in its elegant container! The tone is complex as the tragic enormity of its message is somehow held in so small a moment edged with humor. Plus what an excellent first line that arrests and entices! I like how the reader can read the hole in the world as the portal through which the child has his vision, while the hole may also refer to a wound in our Earth.
Thank you for finding so much in my story and for reading it deeply!
what a beautiful and deep message from the cB