Fading Light

Scribbled this in my notebook for a nano-prep project. Decided I kind of like it. Figured I would put it here for everyone. Maybe I can find a contest for it or something....



Captain James Anderson. Fearless flight commander. Loving husband to Theresa Anderson, with his two little girls in the backyard. A swingset nestles comfortably in the confines of the hurricane fenced back yard. An old, broken freezer rests along the fence line behind the girls as they climb and swing in the foreground. Without warning, Theresa's chickens run into the scene from the right. One leghorn and one barred rock.

"Your chickens escaped again," he chuckles.

"Oh hush," replies Theresa, "they're just running free for the afternoon. The hawks ain't gonna get them long as we're back here."

A shadow fell over the sunny scene, darkening the sky and easing Anderson's wincing. He looks up to reveal not a solitary cumulus cloud, but a swath of cumulonimbus moving in as part of a front.

The hens cease their bug hunt and dash toward their enclosure.

"Kids," hollers Theresa. The rumble of thunder can be heard in the distance.

Blackness, quiet business chatter, and the smell of lemon-scented wood cleaner. Anderson lifts his head from the conference table and straightens up. The hollow void returns as he stares down at the itemized list. Three thousand credits for this, four thousand for that. Just meaningless numbers on a page he didn't want to look at.

"You're awake." In walks the chubby one in his tuxedo-style suit. Decked out like a penguin. White shirt and black everywhere else, including the vest under his jacket. He takes a seat across the table. "You still look exhausted."

Anderson nods and stares back at the paper.

The penguin speaks again, "The check cleared, so everything is lined up. We can have the service in three days."

"It's just one spot for the kids?"

"Yea, the smaller caskets can go on the same plot, that way they can both be closer to your wife. We'll still have a spot near them for you too. Hopefully you won't need to worry about it for a while, but everything is paid up. You're wife's life insurance covered all of it. You were fine with just the two headstones?"

"Not fine with any of it; but yea, one for her, and one for them."