Flash Fiction: From the Water’s Edge

From the Water’s Edge was the first story I had published, shortly after I created this website back in 2016. This story was on my mind recently, and then within a week, I had two people mention this piece to me and how I should share it again. I hope you enjoy.

I don’t know the woman sitting across the coffee shop, but I know her sadness. I have never spoken to her, but we discuss her life over sips of latte and stolen glances over paper mugs.

Her smile wraps around me and I feel the warmth of a thousand summer days, but I’m haunted by the faintest downturn at the edges of her lips.

I imagine the brilliance of her ocean blue eyes in her youth. Even now, they sparkle, but I want to weep because beyond their brilliance there’s loss.

My heart feels weighted as she flips the page of the book in front of her, and I see her weathered hands dab at the corners of her eyes.

I turn the page of my notebook, pretending not to notice.

When I look up again, she’s staring at me. She winks, and I’m washed away in a tidal wave.

I wonder if she’s heard my whispered sorrow as we’ve carried on our silent conversation.

I feel my face redden at the realization of my exposure. I think she somehow knows how I cry in the shower unheard. Tears over lost loved ones and lost dreams, wash away down the drain where no one will find them.

She knows. She knows me and I don’t even know her name, but somehow she knows me better than anyone.

She mouths, “It’ll be okay.”

Somehow, I believe her. Because, even though the remnants of her grief tug at the corners of her eyes and her mouth, her eyes still sparkle, and I believe.