“Go away.”
She looked down the hallway, remembering the first time she’d seen it. She’d been pregnant with him then, so big she almost touched both walls.
Funny the house seemed so much smaller now. Maybe that’s how everything always was, different than you remembered it, smaller or dimmer or not as pleasant. She sighed.
“Are you sure you don’t want some pancakes?” she called through the door. “It’s no trouble.”
“I’m sleeping,” he said, voice muffled.
She sat in the kitchen. She’d been so eager for him to come home. This was almost worse than the worrying had been.
Very clever the way you show us his state, rather than tell us
Yeah, veterans home have a rough road. They miss their buddies, but they also feel they should be grateful. Add PTSD to this mix and you have a worsening situation. Among US servicemen and women, the suicide rate surpasses that of combat death.
Dear Josh,
It sounds like an arduous road ahead for both of them. Wonderfully told in a story where less is definitely more.
Shalom,
Rochelle
The expectation that they can just slip back into the life they had before is the start of the downfall. Powerful scene.
It took me two reads but the way you reveal the whole situation is brilliantly done
Heartache of another kind.
Hopefully he will still come around.
A perfect example how to tell a story by leaving things to the imagination. Great story. And thank you for the intriguing picture.
You’ve written an outstanding story there, Josh. You give the veteran four words to say, and they tell us so much about his mental state. Brilliant, too, how you give us the mother’s whole-life perspective on her son. That does so much, both in describing the returned soldier, and showing that the casualties aren’t all on the battlefield; families suffer too.
You show so well how war affects those who come back and those left behind. Nothing can ever be as it was.
Well done, Josh. I could feel the mother’s pain and her desperation to illicit any response from her withdrawn son. Trying the familiar things that brough him happiness in the past, but aren’t having any impact. I feel for her, just as I feel for the veteran who is probably equally lost at home to actually return home mentally as well as physically. Unfortunately, as you said, too many resort to suicide something which is all too easy to understand when the mental anguish does go away and is too much. I don’t know what could be done to reduce the incidence of PTSD or to help those affected. I really lie what Prince Harry is doing with the Invictus Games, which is where I took my take on the prompt.
I don’t usually look at other people’s takes until I’ve written my own. However, quite often I struggle to place the photo and I usually like to now where it was taken, particularly when it looks like somewhere I should now about. On these occasions, I might read a couple to work it out, but that’s all and it doesn’t affect what I write.
I’m Australian so it can be difficult for me at times picking up on some of the American images.
Best wishes,
Rowena
Nice depiction of how perception and emotions can make a real difference.
I wrote about soldiers as well. The down side is all their relationships ended. The upside is two of them found each other.
So hard when someone come home broken like that… the way you describe it (including the title is so well written)
This must happen so often. Very well told.
You can’t just pick up life the way it was, unfortunately .
I imagine this too be more common than we know. Well done on producing such a thought-provoking piece in so few words.
Click to read my FriFic tale
He may be back but he still has quite a journey in front of him.
They called it shell shock back in WW1 – it’s still not understood properly.
Killer last line, Josh. Very much show, don’t tell.
Thanks!
So many of our veterans pay for our lifestyle with life and limb. What many forget is that their spouses pay too. This story illustrates this very well.
Very powerful.
I liked the pace of this, the gradual unfolding of the story.
Very well done.
Thanks
The last line was a revelation and applicable (I think) not just to war veterans. Thank you for the photo prompt this week.
You painted a poignant detailed picture in so few words. I felt both the mother and the son’s pain. Well written.