❁ five hundred miles
Author's Notes
this was an experimental piece of writing that I wanted to publish to get something about my story kickstarted :P This one-shot briefly focuses on Terry's yearning of the past as he reminisces of his old home, wishing that things could be the way they used to
Lord, I’m five hundred miles from my home.
I could hear the whistles blow a hundred miles as all the crew and soldiers gathered their things. It was the third time I visited Meraki that month, however, with each visit, I’ve only briefly taken a glance. There’s something deeply unsettling about home of which I can’t enlighten you.
To call it a wretch (as my brother does often) is beyond me. How could I ever call my home such; where I’d family?
—Is what I thought to myself, until my gaze gradually came to face what was.
A province in ruins; homes and great buildings reduced to ashes and dust. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust. No more was home. And neither family.
No more…until when?
I only looked at it all for about ten seconds or more before letting my head hang.
In the frozen soil, only one remnant of life seemed to remain: a young honeysuckle.
I picked the flower from the ground and I lightly brushed it up against my nostrils, and with just the slightest whiff, I was taken back to a distant time. Warm, not like the coldness when I was there; where I had enough fleece to last me winters till I was damned, and enough of those flowers to make old age sweet.
I could still hear the days past, and taste it on my tongue: the sweet flavor of the honeysuckle flower.
Now, I gaze at the remnants of my home, not a shirt on my back, not even a penny to my name, and what made old age sweeter then and now?
The whistles of the boats sound from afar, calling for its captain. For a moment, I couldn’t stop myself from continuing to stare off into the distance; of a place that I once knew.
I set the flower back down atop the soil, and let myself exhale as I glanced down at my reflection in a muddy puddle. In search of relief, I found disgust and shame. All it was.
For the first time in a while, I felt my heart pumping.
Aching.
I looked up upon the land again, before I shunned it for the last time.
Never again, could I go home. Not that way.