Little Broken Things

This one was always one to tend the little broken things, the discarded flotsam and jetsom. To see beauty in them, and swim forever in a sea of curiosity and inventiveness.

She collects these things, and keeps them in her Garden surrounded by pretty red flowers.

By the way, she'd never admit it, but she can be quite a vain creature. Red is wonderfully her colour. Her hair is just a shade or two away from blood, and long enough to hang all the way to her waist. She chooses flowers and shells to complement it, and ignores my mocking of her vanity.

She is kind as well, though, you know. Tender-hearted.

On this day, her habit has brought her nothing but heartache. She is crying, salty tracks on her pale cheeks, melting away to nothing, another broken little thing in her arms.

“But, honey,” I told her. “He isn’t breathing. He can’t. Not down here. What did you expect?”

A small boy had gone scampering out of sight when his betters were busy and distracted, and somehow fell from the boat. He was a sweet thing, still little and soft. Fresh from his mother’s skirts. A wavy mop of black hair atop rosy cheeks and dimples. Now his blue eyes stare blankly up into the gloom, and no amount of begging and salt can bring him back. She has given him the Kiss, but I'm certain it was too late. He was already Gone.

“This isn’t something I can fix, honey,” I told her, as gentle as I knew how.

When she's almost done crying, she buries him under a cairn in her Garden with an oyster pearl in his mouth, and surrounds him with bright red petals.

Just another little broken thing, preserved down here in this small corner of the world, where there's hardly eyes to see it. Not the ones that are like to count, anyway.

I watch her, flicking her shining tail in her cheaply earned grief, weeping into that waterfall of blood-red waves as if another drop of salt could do a damn bit of difference in the end.

Just another little broken thing.

Poor unfortunate souls.

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Word count (excluding note): 366

Submitted on 1st March at 22.53

*Quick Author's Note* including update on Sex Robot Challenge

First, and most importantly: thank you for reading!

Leave me a link to your own latest story, if I haven't already seen it! Especially if you're joining me on this "story every day" madne adventure.

If you enjoyed this story, the best compliment you can give me is to share it, or read another. Here is the one I wrote yesterday.

Pay no attention to the writer behind the curtain: No prizes for guessing the inspiration here.

A Year of Stories: I'm writing a story every day this year. This one makes a 61 day streak. You can find all of them in my Index post. It's also pinned to the top of my profile. I'll be posting my reflections on February, plus some prompt ideas for March, over the coming weekend.

Sex Robot Challenge:

I've collated all the entries and will make a post about them over the coming couple of days. Judging is closed, but if you've got a story that fits the prompt, you're still welcome to link me to it!

Thank you

Thank you again! I do my best to reciprocate all reads. Please do leave a comment, and I'll pop over and read one of yours as soon as I can.