PJ was back in town for his high school reunion. He walked the road by the river, the one that knew his long dead girlfriend’s boots, and in the rhythm of the waves he’d sublimate the ache into something like prayer, though he’d never call it that. This ache was beyond the help of prayers. #vss365

They stood there a long time. He knew it was time for him to leave. Their relationship had some rough moments. It had some tender moments. But they had never learned to put each other first and a relationship like that could not stand. #2WordPrompt

On the Danube

Bruce looked at the road, then at Wendy. “We could take a chance,” he said. She didn’t answer. She thought a while. Was Bruce a friend? Could he be trusted with her dreams and visions? She thought not. A tramp like him was born to run. #moonmystic

Professor Clarke had it right when he said, “Interstellar travel will not be the triumph of engineering alone, but of imagination unbound.” It is unfortunate today that imagination is not fostered better in our educational system. #vssmagic

Marilyn painted a serene landscape using soft watercolour washes that blended like a dream. The sky she painted featured muted blues bleeding into streaks of pink. It was so different from the sharpness of her life. #blueskyrelay

Nancy repurposed dragon scales left from battle into a cloak that shimmered with forgotten fire. She loved the colours on her and it gave her fantastic protection from both the heat and the cold. Moreover it gave anyone with bad intentions an idea of who they were dealing with. #vssmagic

That’s not the point. Of course I could have done better. I attach no blame to the boy I was, only the excuse that he loved too fiercely and knew too little of the world’s quiet cruelties. Innocence can be a blindness. #2WordPrompt

Evelyn was an experienced hiker. She packed the old backpack with maps, aspirin tablets, and a flare gun amongst other items she may need. She was ready for almost any eventuality the mountain might throw her way.Nothing could have prepared her for Sasquatch. #vss365

It was the coldest morning of the fall. Jake stepped out into the morning, his boots crunching on frost-bitten grass. It was the kind of cold that made a man remember every ache he’d ever had. #blueskyrelay

He wrote to her in a language that barely belonged to him, most borrowed from poets and prayers. He hoped the words might carry more truth than his voice ever could, but he was wrong. In the tone of his spoken voice she could hear the depths of his love. #vssmagic

My wife’s truth was a quiet thing, folded into the creases of her dish towels, and though the walls of our home held her laughter, they also held the secrets she never said. It too many years of marriage but finally I head both clearly. #2WordPrompt

The appearance of the Catskills to west of us was our bellwether. It the mountains appeared clearly, dry weather was ahead. If the mountains appeared shrouded in clouds, then a storm was on the way and if it were winter this meant snow and plenty of it. #vss365

The teacher’s voice was brisk, clipped like the edge of a ruler. We sat up straight, not out of fear, but because she made learning feel like something worth pursuing. Strict as she was, we could still find ways to make her smile. #blueskyrelay

The Canadian geese lifted off the lake in a clamor of honks, flying away into the dusk, and I stood there watching, feeling the years do the same. Winter was coming. I realized then that the geese had a sense of direction I never had. #moonmystic

Six weeks on the land had tried his soul. The salt air reinvigorated him. He stood at the bow and watched the waves break. That was enough. He was whole again. #vss365

She stitched her days with quiet precision, a design of small kindnesses and unspoken longings, and I, forever the fool that I am, turned away from her before I saw the pattern she would have made of us. #2WordPrompt

Budapest

I found the priest in the field behind the church kneeling among the thistles, whispering something to the wind. I approached him and he rose and said, “I was praying to forgive. It’s an underrated virtue and oh so hard to practice.” That has stuck with me over the years. #2WordPrompt

The summer ended not with a storm but with a catastrophe of small things; forgotten promises, unopened emails, the slow fading of the champagne buzz and laughter. The Labor Day party came and went leaving me with a low grade hangover and high grade regrets. #vss365

The wind swept through the temple ruins like an enchantment, stirring the dust of centuries into a dance of light. The air was heavy, too thick to breathe. I passed out and when I woke I found myself an Egyptian priestess with handmaidens in radiant attendance. #vssmagic

The party at the Canfield Casino shimmered with ineffable promise; champagne, laughter and the kind of music that made you forget you were lonely. It was the kind of affair where you would think hooking up would be easy, but somehow I never found me one. #blueskyrelay

I walked the lane where we once walked, and the rhapsody of you was in every cobblestone, every breeze that stirred the bushes and every bird that sang it’s joyous tune. Sometimes, if you are lucky, the joy in a past relationship still lingers on. #moonmystic

Liam’s sailboat was becalmed. He looked at the sea and the sea looked back, flat and gray and without promise. It was clear he was going nowhere for a while. The silver lining in all that gray was that there was still plenty of Jameson to make the time pass more quickly. #vssdaily

You jog through roots and cobblestone, A hankering clawing at the bone. It knows your name, your breath, your ache, It feeds on promises you break. So run, if it soothes your pride. It’s not your body, it wants inside. It’s that regret you never spoke, The dream you ate, the vow you broke #emoetry

Eílis and I were vacationing in the Kingdom. We were staying in a bed and breakfast that had seen better days, but had maintained its charm. Breakfast was eggs and soda bread, and I remember the light coming through the curtain like it was trying to remember something too. #2WordPrompt

Helen was aware for some time that she was losing it. The medicine the doctor had prescribed was counterproductive, but now she was addicted. She looked in the mirror and her reflection twitched a second too late; an extrusion of her own mind, fractured and feeding on fear. #vss365hq

The old hotel had neither cable nor Wi-Fi and the antenna on the 1960s vintage television was useless no matter how Jack fiddled with it. The static on the old television pulsed in patterns, nefarious and deliberate, like something was trying to speak through the snow. #blueskyrelay

He wandered down the street with the slow gait of someone who’d once believed in happy endings, but was now chasing ghosts of what might have been in the glow of streetlights. There were no happy endings he knew now, but what choice did he have but to continue on. #vssdaily

In my dream, the stock moved slow through the coulee, dust rising like old ghosts. I could hear my grandfather’s voice calling the names of every steer. It was long ago and far away, but I woke with the taste of the dust on my tongue. #vss365

The fox had the mange and the boy fed it anyway, because it was hungry and life had taught him not to mind ugliness. When his parents finally called the Department of Environmental Conservation, the lady came out and said the mange had gone too far and it was too late to save the critter. #vssmagic

Eileen was neither a pessimist or an optimist. She thought of herself as a realist. It was her opinion, that every gain in this life came with a small subtraction. She saw it as a flip side of every cloud has a silver lining. Being a Red Sox fan will make you that way. #2WordPrompt

Under the late September skies, Mother Nature began to whisper fall magic through the leaves of the Adirondack trees, turning the fever of the long hot summer into golden memory. #moonmystic

It took Jane awhile but she caught her stride in her thirties. She languished in her twenties with questionable decision in work and at play. However, she learned from her mistakes and when she got back on track she came on like a freight train. #vssdaily

Freedom ⛓️‍💥💯

Javert achieved synthesis between flesh and machine, but forgot to program mercy. The robotic police officer was consumed by justice no matter how small the transgression. Soon the courts were overrun with cases and the robot was consigned to the scrap heap. #vss365

Mary Margaret was born beneath a blood moon, her cry braided with wind and prophecy. Her birth split the sky for a moment, and the stars rearranged themselves to make room. They all glowed brighter; the universe was ablaze. The cycle of sacrifice had begun anew. #vssmagic

We were lovers in college and after many years she moved to my city. We would occasionally meet for lunch. There were some truths we never spoke aloud, but I assure you they lived in the silence between us. #2WordPrompt

The swamp was quiet. Even the incessant noise of the frogs had stilled. He then saw or thought he saw the swamp witch. She stood just beyond the cypress, her shape half-formed in the mist. The air was thick. He walked back slow, the frogs still silent, the swamp holding its breath. #blueskyrelay

The branch of the service that took him did not give him back whole, only in fragments and medals. He came home with a chest full of ribbons and a silence that settled over the dinner table like dust. His joy, once reckless and bright, had been replaced by a kind of distant politeness. #vssdaily

The virtues that shape a life are usually every day acts. Humanity shows itself in neighbourly acts: a hand on a shoulder, a silence kept when words would wound. The moral compass of such places points toward a compassion that endures even when the world no longer values kindness. #inkmine

The wind and the sand conspired to erase her tracks, as if the girl had never passed that way, as if the land itself wished her trail to be lost. Gina never gave up hope, however, that all things lost are found some day. She had to. Losing her sister would break her. #vss365

The harvesting season turned like a page in a ledger, and with each blast of wind off the Catskill Mountains, he felt the old ache in his shoulder where the work had written its own story. Farming was a hard living but he wanted no other life. #2WordPrompt

The train arrived with the sound of something inevitable, and among the passengers was a star-crossed boy with a letter of introduction in his coat pocket and a new name he had to answered to. He was hoping his cross country trip would reverse his fortunes. #blueskyrelay

Line himself, the lotus in the pond was not native, but it had taken root all the same. James wondered if his hopes could do the same; settle, bloom, and eventually become joy. #vssdaily

The rain came like a kindness, soothing his soul. It sang a lullaby as it fell in soft sheets against the window. Outside, in the garden the roses drank deeply. He could hear the rhythm of it, steady and forgiving. He let go of his sorrow and the the peace the rain brought stayed with him. #vss365

She drank from the silver cup and felt her mettle tested by every sorrow she had buried beneath her ribs. She had survived the last test. She was now a true Amazon Warrior and ready for whatever challenges was presented to the rain forest. #vssmagic

Augie could feel the virus grow inside him, reshaping his bones and organs. By morning his legs were gone and his arms turned into flippers. He needed to get to water, fast. Instinct took over. By using his gill covers for support and fins for pushing off he was able to reach the lake. #2WordPrompt

She whistled once and the dog came. It was the only thing that still listened. She didn’t speak much anymore. The dog sat beside her, quiet, watching the horizon like it expected something to return. She touched its ear and looked out past the fence, past the road, past the years. #blueskyrelay

The boy asked if the compass could find his father. The man said no, but someday it will help you find yourself. They walked on for a spell anyway. #vssdaily