Picture 2
Kimberly Gould’s Picture Choice: Both
Title: Dreams Return
It was a foggy morning. He pulled down his shotgun and loaded it, just as he had done every foggy morning for twenty years. Lifting the loaded rifle to his shoulder, he took a sight. Yep, that should do it. Dressed in warm flannel, he should only need his hat to be ready for his morning constitutional.
Constitutional, he sounded like an old fart. He wasn’t that old, only forty, but meeting that pixie had aged him more than his face could tell. His hair was thinner on top, but still dark. It was in his eyes, if anyone bothered to look. A cold steel hardness that came from being taken across and then dropped back on his doorstep when the fog melted away.
He’d loved that little thing. Her hair hanging in ringlets, all snowy white. She looked like dew. Little did he know she was also as ephemeral as it. She’d left him with more than the scars on his heart and the steel in his eyes. She’d taken his dreams. He slept, but never more than an hour or two. No dreams. It was a horrible thing to lose. He could remember his dog that had passed, but never run with him again. He could imagine the girl in his senior class he hadn’t had the courage to ask to the prom, but he’d never get to dance with her.
Shifting the rifle’s weight, he marched out into the trees along the same well-worn path he’d taken all those years ago. And there she was, little pixie bitch.
He lifted his gun, planning to shoot fast. He’d missed the last time he’d seen her.
“Wait!” she cried. “Alfie! I can fix it.”
“I can fix it,” he said, pulling the trigger.
He closed his eyes and felt himself walking with her out of the mist. Dreams may not come true, but they were more precious than gold. With a smile, he turned his back on the minute corpse, planning to take a late morning nap.
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Kimberly Gould is the author of Cargon: Honour and Privilege and the upcoming Thickness of Blood. She can be found most places as Kimmydonn, including Kimmydonn.com
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Ha, and here we thought fairies and pixies were good things to have around. I am curious why she would take his dreams, what benefit she got from it. Interesting story, sweets.
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