Flash Fiction
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Jessie's Angels

by
Diana Hannon Forrester

 

The angels in Jessie Lincoln's collection mark every milestone of her life.  She shuffles about touching her favorites, trying to decide which to take  to the retirement home, which to leave for the sale. A four pronged cane  steadies her. 

Jessie lifts an ivory figure in an intricately carved gown. She speaks  to her husband, long dead. Her voice is strong, but her head bobbles with  the words. "This was my motherhood talisman, Jack. I carried it when we  were expecting Billy and he was born so strong and healthy." 

She caresses the filigree edging the angel's gown, and thinks about  selling it. She sets it aside, grips the handle of her cane and sighs. Then she pulls her sweater close over narrow shoulders and plucks a softly green  china angel from the shelf. 

"This one matches the dishes we carried back from Canada, Jack, before  we were married - in the Limoges crate with the illegal whiskey. I was  terrified we'd be arrested - talked the leg right off the border guards." 

Jessie laughs with the tinkling sound of a girl. "Fifty-six years and  I never broke a piece." She slips the angel into her sweater pocket. 

"Oh, Jack! I hate to leave ... But I had a little stroke .... The stairs  are hard ... Bill worries, you know." 

Jessie taps the rotund belly of a wooden angel joyously blowing a  fluted horn. "I bought this one in Switzerland. My first trip without  you ... Life changes, Jack. It changes till the very end and who knows about  after?" 

Jessie's shoulders square. Her eyes wander over the angels, gently her  knotty fingers touch several more. "Only the angels know for sure." 

She is ready to leave but speaks again to Jack, telling him of the  young couple who are buying the house, their four year old twins, their  plans. Her eyes are damp but a smile deepens the lines on her face. 

"Soon there will be new laughter here. New futures are coming." Jessie  is a little steadier now. She takes out her handkerchief and wipes her  eyes. "The children make leaving easier. They make it easier." 

She stops at the door, turns and pulls the china angel from her  pocket, sets it on a table. "The memories are my treasures, Jack. I'll  leave the angels for the sale." 

 

I have been writing for five years and have had publications on the Internet in Seeker, Mystery and Manners, and The Edifice of Art and Literature.  My work has also appeared in World Wide Writer's Magazine, and The Wellspring Magazine.  Recently, the BBC World Service accepted a story for a reading. Two of my stories received honorable mention in the Ashes International Writing Competition.  I live in Ohio and have four grown children.  Presently, I am a member of Boot Camp, an on-line writer's group led by Alex Keegan. At the moment, most of my time and energy is going into a novel which I hope to finish by fall. 

Jessie's Angels was written during the bittersweet time when my mother-in-law was preparing to move into a retirement home. She decided to break up housekeeping after nearly sixty years in the same house. I hope you enjoyed reading it.

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