Betwixt and Between

My father’s hardness ran so deep that anything tender in him was trapped like a bug in amber. Certain angles you might see it, but kindness and compassion were dead relics buried inside him.

This no doubt served him in his role as constable, but didn’t make him shucks as a father to three motherless girls.

As the middle girl there was nothing to distinguish me.

I had neither Dora’s cunning nor Clara’s charm, and like my father’s kind heart was trapped betwixt and between.

My two sisters each carried in them a strain of that same hardness.

 

Friday Fictioneers

19 comments

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  1. James

    My wife was the middle child, but in her case, she was promoted to first child after the older two moved out, having to then take care of the youngest two.

  2. rochellewisoff

    Dear J Hardy,

    I find it interesting that you wrote from a feminine POV and did it well, I might add. Love the bug in amber. Good story all around.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

  3. gahlearner

    I join the chorus about the bug in amber line. Brilliant story, there is a lot not said that tells much. She has the kind heart and may be able to break free.

  4. Lynn Love

    Oh, I love this! Feels like the opening to something big, some great, epic tale about a life in a shifting world. You’ve summed up those characters so beautifully too – dad with his softness hidden away, she being the middle one, and we all have preconceptions about middle ones, the sisters being hard so I assume your MC feels isolated, the odd one out. More please

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