I’m on holiday this week and instead of the usual essay, I wrote something a little different.
This piece was inspired by Beth Kempton’s Soul Circle: Summer of Substack Essay Festival with this week’s prompt being VULNERABILITY - not something I allow myself to feel very often.
I’ll be having a short story published in a week or two, so I’ll be back to some craft stuff again after my holiday! If you enjoy the thought of some short flash fiction in your stream, then do let me know in the comments as I have a few short/long listed pieces I could place here.
So, from the beautiful Tweed estuary, here we go…
Holiday To Mark The End of Chemo Cycle No 1
I head out, sweatshirt and trousers on top of pajamas, eyes full of sleep, to walk Monty the spaniel.
6am feels like the secret hour on the River Tweed campsite.
A distant train rolls southwards to London, a white van is driven off to work. The dog runs toward chunky rabbits and swooping seagulls.
Young boys practiced football on this manicured grass yesterday, “To me! To me!”
The Tweed estuary awakens in shades of peach and strawberry, the moon a slip of tracing paper still in the August sky, Berwick lighthouse out on its own.
Moments later, I’m in the facilities block, water running over me as I set my intention for the week ahead.
Forget about hospital appointments for now, be supportive, wear a smile.
I wore PJs under my clothes, like a hidden protection. Finest white cotton PJs with a repeat pattern of embroidered flowers, regimented like the appointments on the wall calendar at home. I push the PJs to the bottom of a tote bag from some long-ago bookshop holiday, vulnerability hidden.
I slough dead skin, make myself shine once more. Bitterness runs down the drain.
Outside, navy tote bag on my shoulder, sun on my wet curls, I raise my face to the sun, breath sun-dried seaweed of all the holidays past, and I’m ready to face the first day of the rest of our lives.
(Photo: Berwick Lighthouse)
Thanks for being with me this week. I lost track of what day of the week it was and didn’t prepare anything. Then I felt compelled to write this piece of flash, if it is flash - I’m not sure!
Here’s until next week. May the sun shine on you, and may the words fall onto paper for you.
Bye for now,
Jackie in the Little Writing Corner in Scotland
(Well, at the moment, I’m in the border country, but I’ll be back soon!)
NOTE:
Soul Circle Summer of Substack Essay Festival
Bitterness: born of resentment and a feeling of injustice, is best let go as it can have devastating effects on your health and relationships with others as well as yourself (from the dictionary of Jackie) ;)
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