The Prompt
Opening Line: “She met her true love in the middle of a field of tombstones.”
Michele says: I love cemeteries. They have so many stories, so many characters. I find them comforting.
So it does not have to be a scary story, although it can be. It could be the story of people who are interred there.
Their pre life doesn’t have to have a connection to the cemetery. That could just be the starting point.
It could be people who meet there because they are mourning the loss of someone.
Could be your traditional zombie story, horror story mystery story as well.
But I’m just drawn to the idea of cemeteries as places for stories.
The Author
Michele E. Reisinger studied English and Political Science at the Pennsylvania State University and received an MA in English Literature from the University of Delaware. She lives near Philadelphia with her family and teaches senior and AP English at a New Jersey high school. Her short fiction has appeared online at Light and Dark Magazine, Prometheus Dreaming, 34th Parallel, and is forthcoming in The Mighty Line. “Ask and Ye Shall Receive” was a merit winner for Passion and featured in TulipTree Publishing’s 2019 anthology Stories That Need to be Told. You can find out more at her website: https://mereisinger.com/
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A letter arrived from a long term lover who had gone missing. She could find nothing out about what had happened because he was married to a friend of her mother’s second husband’s daughter’s best friend! This was alarming because she had heard about his funeral by way of family chatter. Things get even more puzzling when she reads his letter. He tells her to visit his grave and take the small statue that has been placed by the headstone. Do it without being seen. When you get home smash it with a lump hammer. Inside is a metal box. Prise the lid open and all will be revealed. He wrote ‘ I still love you and always have.’
An outline for a flash fiction.
Thank you Julie. I wrote a quick 120 word story about a woman whose imagine takes her to what could have been – another time. I should be doing my accounts, really.
Also, very much enjoyed the challenged of writing using the consecutive letters of the alphabet. A great way to just enjoy a stream of thoughts as you keep the pen moving.
I just managed time for an outline today but it feels it has potential for the future.
My story is set on an archaeological dig at the site of a recently discovered Saxon burial ground. It was uncovered by a Farmer extracting sand from a sandpit on his land. He forms a bond with one of the archeologists which leads to a partnership which has an amazing future for them, both romantically and professionally.
I vanished down a rabbit hole for this prompt.
She met her true love in the middle of a field of tombstones. It was her gap year and she needed the money. She took the job cataloguing the tombstones in the cemetery of the abandoned town. She loved everything about it. The four-hour drive along the cliff-side road, towering cypress trees, gnarled ancient olive trees. The cemetery gates. Well, gate. One lay prostrate, its rusted scroll-work visible between coarse grasses. She’d spent over a month taking pictures and etchings of the tombstones, not once disturbed, until today. She sat on her favourite grave, its headstone of red marble. A slab of such delicious tomato red-orange she wanted to lick it. Leaned against the headstone. Her skin pressing into the engraved letters.
582 words. To be continued.
Oh wow! I can’t wait to read more.
A story came, of love and loss…