Each month, [100 Word Story] posts a photograph as a writing prompt. July’s photo inspired the following flash fiction.
Grief is an invasive species, thought Margarite, blowing her nose onto a hand-embroidered handkerchief. They just don’t make things with care anymore. Years of trying to understand her namesake’s death led her to an abandoned graveyard miles from their estate.
On the tomb, a message, half-hidden by garish green moss.
Margarite used her handkerchief to scrape off clumps, revealing a verse:
“Though your beginning was small, your later days will be great.”
Nonsense, Margarite sneezed, wiping goo before resuming her search. It was only when her nose tingled, slid from her face covered in green, she realized the expanded truth.
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