By: Caroline Jones-Kirkland
Completed: 30th of January, 2018
Word Count: 548
Reunited Under the Willow
They gathered under a willow tree. A group of young children on teen hips, and twenty year olds stood with tears running down the elders' faces. The young even understood this grave situation. All were in tears, not just the twenty somethings. However there was one boy, yes only one boy who looked lost and hopeless in this moment. A man with shoulder length golden locks, similar to those of the boy, knelt next to the boy.
The boy's face streamed with tears, sobs racked his smaller body, in a fetal position. His mentor, his father, his north star was not there to comfort him this one time. The boy wanted to be small once more, to be with his father. He wanted his father to chase him in their meadow once more. He wanted to make flower crowns with his mentor once more. He wanted to be cradled in his north star's arms after a nightmare once more.
The boy only looking sixteen, had just left home. Home, he did not have a real one anymore. That was more, no longer existed. The boy realized this again, and another heart wrenching sob grabbed his smaller frame. The man, leaned closer, whispering french nothings into the younger's ears. The tears still fell, but the sobs began to quiet. The mood of the others did not fade. They had harboured spite against the boy's father, but never understood what this man had meant to the blue eyed child before them in tears.
A woman appears her hair cut at her shoulders, a blond of yesteryear and forest green eyes that pierced souls. She strolled forward, all the others moved out of her way. The black fabric parted like a sea of mourning. The woman went forward to the golden boy with the blue eyes of the sky, had it not been cloudy. The man with similar features walked the boy to the woman. Their eyes united a grandmother to the grandson she had never met. Grief swirled in both of their eyes, but their gaze stayed together unlike their family. A family separated by sea, rebellion, and lost intentions.
"Alfred, the dear child of my youngest, follow me. Follow me to the sun. Follow me to met your fate."
She spoke with unmistakable intention, for once not lost to the boy. Her arms beckoned him to her. The boy, Alfred, took her hands. They walked away from the willow of mourners, toward the sun. Their bodies faded to dust as they walked up. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes they say. The boy's father, Arthur, seemed to appear in the sky with open arms to his first son, his pride and joy. Alfred ran into the arms of his father, they were reunited at last. Their bodies faded to dust, the boy suffered not longer. A smile began to appear on the mourner's faces. The boy had been ill for so long and his father dead, it gripped the hearts of those present and forced them to feel happiness for a lost opponent, enemy, and his joyous son, Alfred. At last a family was mended together, even through tragedy. Finally Alfred Foster and Arthur Ignatius Kirkland were reunited in the sky for eternity.
Le Fin