Welcome to episode 41 of Flash Fiction Friday with AB Frank.
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The writing prompt for this week:
Object: Shirt
Action: Return
Genre: Mystery
Object Word Association: Clothes, long sleeves, short sleeves, buttons, tailored, stained, torn, shrunk, cuff link.
Action Word Association: Take back, go back, revisit, reborn, come back.
Enjoy!
The Mist on the Hill
My master routinely stared out of the dining room window with his morning tea. He’d say the view of rolling hills made him feel reborn. Watching the leaves shimmer on the trees, and the occasional deer grazing was indeed lovely.
I’d even steal a few moments to appreciate the land before returning to my household tasks. But this changed the day my master spotted the mist on the hill.
‘Good heavens,’ he said. ‘Come and have a look at this.’
He pointed to a spot where a lone, cylindrical patch of mist rested on the packhorse track that led to a local farm. Before our eyes, its edges softened and it faded away.
‘I’ve never seen mist behave that way. I must investigate this at once.’
He buttoned up his shirt, swung an overcoat on and left.
I’d walked up that packhorse track before. The farmer's son blocked the path and was most unwelcoming to a lady.
‘One-way street, this is,’ he said. ‘Won’t be able to go back down.’
The guard dogs snarled and barked from their cages up by the farmhouse. For those reasons, I have no desire to revisit that place.
But myself and the rest of the staff are worried about our master. The sun has now set at the end of the second day since his departure. He has not returned to the manor since that morning.
The End
The Mist on the Hill