The spinster

(100-word flash fiction)

THE SPINSTER

1994

She finds the abandoned baby one dark evening in the bushes outside her house. Her orphan, spinster heart overflowing with love she herself has never known, pours it into his tiny life.

2004

Like a tidal wave, his ‘real’ parents crash land, accuse her of ‘kidnapping’, threaten to get her arrested, finally leave with him, leaving her lost, broken and crumpled like a wasted ruin. She picks herself up and plods on.

2014

She is late returning to an empty home from her retirement party. As she pushes open the gate, a young man steps out of the shadows.

~~~

Written for the amazing group Friday Fictioneers led by Rochelle. For the photo prompt below -