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Stories In Empty Spaces
WritcoStoryPrompt
Write a short story using at least three from the five prompts given:
An empty suitcase full of memories.
The messages added salt to wounds.
The car accelerated before the signal turned green.
A wardrobe full of clothes that still had their tags on.
A dust free bookcase could hide a lot of lies.
----
Alexandra was moving yet again. Last time it was Shanghai to New York the time before that she left Bangkok where she went to when she left Singapore. And there were three or five more places she went, stayed, built a home before she left yet again.
They were homes of her past. Of love and dreams that weren't to be. They were a symbol of her mistakes, her childish beliefs and her foolish heart.
With a huff, she pulled out her suitcase. It was old and battered. What was once a classic brown leather body was now paler, duller, with many bumps and scratches. But most noticeably was the stickers of every country she had visited plastered haphazardly; some overlapping, some isolated at a corner.
How easy was it to fall for a country, a place, a city and the people who lived there. She thought as she traced the edges of the stickers. But it is as easy as to fall out.
There was Singapore with all its beauty and advancememts. Of the beauty of architecture in everywhere you look. What a beauty it was to see how nature and technology could merge!
She had loved the Botanic Garden. How it's tall structure looked like magnificent trees and at night they looked like gigantic luminous flowers. It would've been the perfect place, but everything was too strict for her.
All should be done in a certain way. And the beauty that once was became boredom, for everywhere she looked, she had been there. After a day or so you have seen everything and after months of knowing everything. The colors faded. The Merlion wasn't as glittering with charm and the Botanical Garden she had so deeply adore became just another place. She felt caged in a way. And no matter how beautiful is the cage a bird will still want to flee.
The next stamp that caught her eye was China. She had never dreamt of going there but when she held an exhibit of her artworks -- boarheaded that it is her life-- she saw the beauty of Shanghai. Of the arts that twisted and intertwined with one another. Cultures that blends and bends and the people. The people were kind faces and she felt at home with them though she looked different. She always looked different. But different was good for everywhere she looked there were difference with one another. But that too went away.
Everything was a blur, fast-paced and no time to think. To reflect. To create and just be. The blending of differences that she once admired with vibrant colors passing and mixing in her canvas became gray. As one had said if everyone is different then no one is.
With a gentle finger she traced a long scratch, from the left side of the suitcase upwards until the center. It was deep that she had tried to stitched up with a needle and thread. It was hopeless -- Alexandra smiled bitterly -- like the story behind it.
She was 20 when she found out that she was adopted. Here parents visited her in her place that was in Japan then. She was a child of a family friend they said that needed help so they took her in. Her parents loved her and they lived in London if she wanted to meet them. She did. Her adoptive parents smiled encouragingly even offered to come with. But she knew that were busy and she had to face this alone. She was strong enough, she said. Oh how wrong she was.
London was wet. It was always raining or about to rain. There was something heavy and unsettling in it but she paid no mind. She was there to meet her family, the biological one, she never met nor knew off until the weeks before. So she travelled to the place where she was supposed to grow up. When she entered, it was like Shanghai all over again. She looked different but features could skip a generation.
It didn't. She was a bastard daughter of her father. She looked like her mother. A mistake. The awful blip into his timeline. He threw the suitcase over the tall sharp fences and left her out in the rain to mend the broken pieces of her self.
She left the stitched scratch then smiled sadly as her fingers lingered at the zipper. It was dark navy blue. Initially, when she first bought it for her 18th birthday -- filled with hopes and starry eyed dreams of travelling the world -- it was brown almost tan.
She and the handsome Newyorker named Gabriel with his dark blue eyes that made her swoon bumped into each other when she was looking for a new place in Shanghai, the building where she stayed was sold to a new owner. She was planning to move anyway, to New York to pursue her art. She left with all her belongings cramped in the well-loved suitcase and a backpack.
Gabriel was a tourist, they crashed into each other quite violently due to the pushing and rushing of the people and some pickpockets. Her suitcase went open, her big canvases spilled and some were soiled. Both rushed to fix it with apologies muttered. In the end, they brought it to a shop that looked secure enough and had it fixed whilst he waited with her in his persistance. He soon discovered her plan to New York and the conversation began to be more than strangers that will meet again but strangers with a possibility in between. By the end of that she had a number of the handsome stranger and a promise to meet in New York.
Less than a week later, she landed in New York bright eyed and hopeful for love. She went to the cafe he talked highly about. She saw him. He didn't. She left with a last message to never talk to her again. She didn't expect a reply. He was too busy kissing the barista for that.
She closed her eyes fearing the physical proof of pain to slide down her cheeks. She was stronger now, wasn't she? Or is this London all over again?
Her hands trembled not wanting to open the suitcase. For in it's emptiness, it shows the pain of her past. The bare pockets and slots that has mismatched threads for every mismatched soul she met and country she travelled and had hoped to find a home in.
Maybe that was the reason, she always filled it. To pretend the mistakes were never there. That her misguidance didn't led to the frailty of her but her strength to hold herself together.
Or maybe... Maybe...
Maybe it was time to stop comparing herself to the battered old suitcase bought buy an 18 year old naive little girl that believed and only saw black and white. Maybe it was time to buy a new suitcase. Who's wheels wouldn't cause lag but instead help her in moving forward. Who's handle and zipper would be strong enough to carry the burden of her dreams. And who's capacity is as big and wide as her vision for herself.
This old one might be the reflection of her past, her mistakes, her grief and false beliefs but the new one, the one that she will buy for herself as a mature adult, would mirror her strength, her perseverance and her faith.
With a smile that was brighter, more hopeful than the rest of her smile in all her life, she got up, tied her boots and went out of the apartment, that she will leave soon enough to find a new home, but first she needed a stronger companion for that.
It was time for suitcase shopping.
----
I'm sorry for any misinterpretarions and representation of any country. I don't have much knowledge of travelling, you see. If you haven't noticed I chose the empty suitcase full of memories. I hoped you enjoyed it.
#Love #findyourself #findingmyself #newbeginning
© Drei A.
Write a short story using at least three from the five prompts given:
An empty suitcase full of memories.
The messages added salt to wounds.
The car accelerated before the signal turned green.
A wardrobe full of clothes that still had their tags on.
A dust free bookcase could hide a lot of lies.
----
Alexandra was moving yet again. Last time it was Shanghai to New York the time before that she left Bangkok where she went to when she left Singapore. And there were three or five more places she went, stayed, built a home before she left yet again.
They were homes of her past. Of love and dreams that weren't to be. They were a symbol of her mistakes, her childish beliefs and her foolish heart.
With a huff, she pulled out her suitcase. It was old and battered. What was once a classic brown leather body was now paler, duller, with many bumps and scratches. But most noticeably was the stickers of every country she had visited plastered haphazardly; some overlapping, some isolated at a corner.
How easy was it to fall for a country, a place, a city and the people who lived there. She thought as she traced the edges of the stickers. But it is as easy as to fall out.
There was Singapore with all its beauty and advancememts. Of the beauty of architecture in everywhere you look. What a beauty it was to see how nature and technology could merge!
She had loved the Botanic Garden. How it's tall structure looked like magnificent trees and at night they looked like gigantic luminous flowers. It would've been the perfect place, but everything was too strict for her.
All should be done in a certain way. And the beauty that once was became boredom, for everywhere she looked, she had been there. After a day or so you have seen everything and after months of knowing everything. The colors faded. The Merlion wasn't as glittering with charm and the Botanical Garden she had so deeply adore became just another place. She felt caged in a way. And no matter how beautiful is the cage a bird will still want to flee.
The next stamp that caught her eye was China. She had never dreamt of going there but when she held an exhibit of her artworks -- boarheaded that it is her life-- she saw the beauty of Shanghai. Of the arts that twisted and intertwined with one another. Cultures that blends and bends and the people. The people were kind faces and she felt at home with them though she looked different. She always looked different. But different was good for everywhere she looked there were difference with one another. But that too went away.
Everything was a blur, fast-paced and no time to think. To reflect. To create and just be. The blending of differences that she once admired with vibrant colors passing and mixing in her canvas became gray. As one had said if everyone is different then no one is.
With a gentle finger she traced a long scratch, from the left side of the suitcase upwards until the center. It was deep that she had tried to stitched up with a needle and thread. It was hopeless -- Alexandra smiled bitterly -- like the story behind it.
She was 20 when she found out that she was adopted. Here parents visited her in her place that was in Japan then. She was a child of a family friend they said that needed help so they took her in. Her parents loved her and they lived in London if she wanted to meet them. She did. Her adoptive parents smiled encouragingly even offered to come with. But she knew that were busy and she had to face this alone. She was strong enough, she said. Oh how wrong she was.
London was wet. It was always raining or about to rain. There was something heavy and unsettling in it but she paid no mind. She was there to meet her family, the biological one, she never met nor knew off until the weeks before. So she travelled to the place where she was supposed to grow up. When she entered, it was like Shanghai all over again. She looked different but features could skip a generation.
It didn't. She was a bastard daughter of her father. She looked like her mother. A mistake. The awful blip into his timeline. He threw the suitcase over the tall sharp fences and left her out in the rain to mend the broken pieces of her self.
She left the stitched scratch then smiled sadly as her fingers lingered at the zipper. It was dark navy blue. Initially, when she first bought it for her 18th birthday -- filled with hopes and starry eyed dreams of travelling the world -- it was brown almost tan.
She and the handsome Newyorker named Gabriel with his dark blue eyes that made her swoon bumped into each other when she was looking for a new place in Shanghai, the building where she stayed was sold to a new owner. She was planning to move anyway, to New York to pursue her art. She left with all her belongings cramped in the well-loved suitcase and a backpack.
Gabriel was a tourist, they crashed into each other quite violently due to the pushing and rushing of the people and some pickpockets. Her suitcase went open, her big canvases spilled and some were soiled. Both rushed to fix it with apologies muttered. In the end, they brought it to a shop that looked secure enough and had it fixed whilst he waited with her in his persistance. He soon discovered her plan to New York and the conversation began to be more than strangers that will meet again but strangers with a possibility in between. By the end of that she had a number of the handsome stranger and a promise to meet in New York.
Less than a week later, she landed in New York bright eyed and hopeful for love. She went to the cafe he talked highly about. She saw him. He didn't. She left with a last message to never talk to her again. She didn't expect a reply. He was too busy kissing the barista for that.
She closed her eyes fearing the physical proof of pain to slide down her cheeks. She was stronger now, wasn't she? Or is this London all over again?
Her hands trembled not wanting to open the suitcase. For in it's emptiness, it shows the pain of her past. The bare pockets and slots that has mismatched threads for every mismatched soul she met and country she travelled and had hoped to find a home in.
Maybe that was the reason, she always filled it. To pretend the mistakes were never there. That her misguidance didn't led to the frailty of her but her strength to hold herself together.
Or maybe... Maybe...
Maybe it was time to stop comparing herself to the battered old suitcase bought buy an 18 year old naive little girl that believed and only saw black and white. Maybe it was time to buy a new suitcase. Who's wheels wouldn't cause lag but instead help her in moving forward. Who's handle and zipper would be strong enough to carry the burden of her dreams. And who's capacity is as big and wide as her vision for herself.
This old one might be the reflection of her past, her mistakes, her grief and false beliefs but the new one, the one that she will buy for herself as a mature adult, would mirror her strength, her perseverance and her faith.
With a smile that was brighter, more hopeful than the rest of her smile in all her life, she got up, tied her boots and went out of the apartment, that she will leave soon enough to find a new home, but first she needed a stronger companion for that.
It was time for suitcase shopping.
----
I'm sorry for any misinterpretarions and representation of any country. I don't have much knowledge of travelling, you see. If you haven't noticed I chose the empty suitcase full of memories. I hoped you enjoyed it.
#Love #findyourself #findingmyself #newbeginning
© Drei A.
