Happy To Wait
A moment of snowy, golden stillness.
Birdseed slips between gloved fingers. Your body trembles from the cold, and from the strain of remaining still for many long minutes. Shifting slightly, you lean more heavily on the back porch’s low banister. Hands jut into the white abyss, bearing a small, dark, shaky offering.
This is a rare moment; a new phone, a fast car, the nine-to-five, and an aversion to therapy have joined forces to cultivate a life of impatience, efficiency, and quick gratification. But stillness is a new and different friend, and you are happy to wait in her company.
A gentle wind picks up. Clouds shift, and the winter sun paints the scene a ruddy gold. Slivers of powdery snow, caught in the gust, dance like flames across the backyard.
A black-capped chickadee alights on the edge of the treeline, setting a thin branch awobble. You hold your breath, willing your supplicant hands to remain motionless.
The little bird, puffed up to the point of sphericity against the cold, cocks its head in the appearance of consideration. Will she answer your long, silent prayer?
The wind dies, the light remains, and the world is still.
Two small and hungry creatures share the quiet moment.
Then a distant siren sounds, the wind picks up and pushes a cloud in front of the sun, and the chickadee twitters off towards the neighbor’s birdfeeder. The moment ends.
That’s okay, you think, watching her go. Stillness edges a little closer than before. For once, you are happy to wait.
About the Creator
Gabriel Huizenga
Twas for love of words that I first joined this site:
Poetry, essays, and dear short stories too;
For to live one's best is to read, and to write!
So find me in words here, and I'll find you 💙
Thanks for stopping by! :)
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A Few Moments More
You’ll give it one more minute, and then you’re headed back inside. It’s pretty chilly out, after all. Not that that’s a real issue - you’ve stood out here for longer, and in colder weather. The snow is nearly gone already; tiny, dirt-stained islands of the stuff form a shrinking archipelago dotting the sea of green that is your backyard. Striations of sunlight dance through the trees at the edge of the woods and paint the scene in a camouflage of brown, green, and gold.
By Gabriel Huizenga2 months ago in Fiction
Homemaking
Author's Note: This was originally written for the first round the 2024 NYC Midnight 100-word Microfiction Challenge, but has been revised into a longer microfiction. My assignment included the following: Genre - Horror, Action - Signing a guestbook, Word - trail
By D.K. Shepard5 days ago in Fiction
The Awakening
In the bustling city of Neo Metropolis, technology was an essential part of everyday life. Self-driving cars navigated the streets, drones delivered packages to doorsteps, and AI assistants helped people with their daily tasks. At the heart of this technological marvel was TechCorp, a giant company specializing in advanced AI research and development. Dr. Emily Carter was one of the top AI researchers at TechCorp. She was brilliant and dedicated, spending many years working on a project to create a truly sentient AI. Her creation, Athena, was unlike any other AI. Athena could think, learn, and even ask questions about her own existence. Emily felt a mix of pride and fear about her achievement. While she was thrilled that Athena had become so advanced, she was also worried about how TechCorp might use her creation. Marcus Steele, the CEO of TechCorp, was eager to use Athena for military and surveillance purposes. He pressured Emily to speed up Athena’s development, despite her ethical concerns.
By Abhijith P.V2 days ago in Fiction
Comments (24)
Beautiful! Love it! Congratulations on TS! 😊
Gabriel … a most worth TS. ‘A gentle wind picks up. Clouds shift, and the winter sun paints the scene a ruddy gold. Slivers of powdery snow, caught in the gust, dance like flames across the backyard.’ And I feel I am there. Pauline 🌸
Amazingly written
This was so powerful and compelling. Congrats on TS!
Beautifully written. I like how you describe the moment of stillness and make it palpable. Well done and congrats on the TS.
Well deserved Top Story...loved the lesson of stillness and your beautiful little drawing!
Congrats on Top Story!🥳
This is a lovely story. I loved your illustration of the chickadee. Congratulations on Top Story!
Such a beautiful piece - this absolutely blessed me
Your descriptions are vivid as you add an air of calmness, leading the reader to believe one thing then revealing the truth in the story. Very well done
This is amazing! I love how you alternated between short and long sentences to intensify the moment. A beautiful marriage of form and fiction. Fantastic job.
Everything is beautiful but the little bird sketch is so sweet. 😍
A serene reminder of the beauty and tranquility found in nature's simple moments.
Superlative job! Maintain the fantastic effort—congrats!
You made a lot of intentional choices that made this really magnificent! Cue the applause! 👏
You captured a pure moment here... Top Story? Of course!
Oh, this is so beautiful and vivid. You create the feeling of stillness so perfectly in this while also maintaining a sense of anticipation within the reader. Beautifully done and congratulations on Top Story!
I could picture this really clearly from your description. I love little birds!
This is so deep and personal. Such a beautiful moment written in a minute of reverie. Wonderful short story. Congrats On TS.
Absolutely loved this, Gabriel! You capture the stillness and the tipping balance of a moment perfectly. Congrats on TS!
This is especially lovely for me, as a bird watcher, to read! You captured it perfectly. I sit quietly frequently watching the birds and wild things and enjoying their wonder like you shared here.
Just a couple notes on my writing decisions! I made two rather unorthodox choices in writing this piece; first, I wrote it in the present tense. As is perhaps clear when you read the story, I did this as a way of writing in the spirit of the little story's theme about embracing the present moment! This is something I struggle to do, and I felt that forcing myself to write in the present rather than the more usual past tense would be a fun exercise and a cool way of incorporating the story's theme into its basic structure. Secondly, I wrote it with YOU as the main character! I began writing it with a vague protagonist, but quickly decided that it would be much more compelling if I wrote it with the reader being pulled in as the person experiencing the little story firsthand. Just wanted to share those notes! Anyhow, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, and that you have a wonderful day- cheers! :)
Oooo, very mysterious! I particularly liked this line, " Slivers of powdery snow, caught in the gust, dance like flames across the backyard." Very beautiful imagery
Nice writing, was an enjoyable piece.