Emotional Storage
A Microfiction Monday Story
She kept him in the rafters. After breaking him into tidy pieces, she tucked the fragments into individual containers — perfect compartments to store the promise of him.
A jar for his eyes when she needed hope. A bag full of his fingers when she needed soothing. A cedar chest for his heart when she needed to smile. All put away neatly in their own sacred spaces.
His pieces never touched. They weren’t supposed to. Not in this house anyway. Maybe in a different place she could sew him together, back into the man she’d always wanted. Maybe that’s why she saved the pieces. It was her frantic, desperate hope of someday coming home.
This story was written as part of a visual writing prompt project I started on Instagram. Each week I offer an image to spark stories and poetry. I make sure to always share a response of my own. They’re short; micro-fiction, really. Still, they’re stories I put energy into so I’m giving them a home here as part of a microfiction series. I hope you enjoy.
I have so many questions about this couple. Lovely and haunting!
Wow... Just... Wow. Terrifying and tragic all at once. Damn. Nicely done. :)