So This Is The End

By Maryruth16

You start with what you remember. The never-quite-sure-what’s-going-through-her-head laugh; the swollen feet squeezed into heels, too pink, too high for all but your crazily rebellious teenager; the lavender-infused hugs; the steak and kidney pies on Sunday afternoons; the “by gum, you’re a bonny lass,” – her final voicemail played over and over.

Your memories morph into a black and white collage of time snaking back to an era before you existed; a mirage of other people’s memories, preserved now in photos of unsmiling bonnet-clad ladies and bushy-bearded gents gazing vaguely into a future that now stares back at you.

     
Mary Thompson’s work has been long-listed, shortlisted and placed in publications and competitions including Flash 500, Fish Short Memoir, Writing Magazine, Retreat West, Reflex Fiction and the Cabinet of Heed.