November Writing Challenge

Day 19 Music inspiration. Write a short story on a song

Turn to tell – Katie Melua

The rain is dripping down the window, but she barley noticed. It might as well be sunny. There would never be a bright day for her again.

Life was a struggle and had been for a while. How did people cope with things like this? She had never wondered before, had never needed to wonder.

But now…

The room suddenly felt a lot emptier and colder. Had it always been so spacious?

She turned and sat down on the couch, staring at the two cups on the table. One was empty. The other was still filled, but the tea had gone cold hours ago.   

She couldn’t bring herself to emptying it. As if by some force of nature its content would make it less real.

She took a blanket from the armrest of a nearby chair and pulled it around her. She buried her head in her hands and quietly cried. It wasn’t fair. Why did this have to happen? She wanted to scream, but she only felt dull. Even the effort of producing sound would break her into tiny little pieces.

If only…

If only they’d have one more chance. Perhaps this time they would do it right. Perhaps this time they wouldn’t argue as much. Not over stupid things anyway. She would have tried harder if she had known what was going to happen.

She wiped the tears from her eyes and stood up, making her way over to the kitchen where she started rearranging the cabinet again. He would have liked it this way. She nodded content at the alphabetized herbs and spices. He was like that.

Her lip started to tremble. If only she could speak to him again. One more time. She would tell him how much she loved him instead of screaming at him to leave her alone, telling him to go.

He had gone. And she hadn’t gone after him.

Why hadn’t she gone after him? She should have gone after him. Perhaps then he wouldn’t have been…

She sunk to the floor and let the tears run freely down her cheeks. Somewhere in the back of her mind she wondered how a person could cry so much. Wouldn’t you dry up eventually? She had been crying for weeks.

Friends had told her to move on with her life, but she didn’t see the point. And one by one they had stopped coming over to check on her.

She couldn’t bring herself to care.

She would give anything for one more chance to talk to him. Sometimes, she would open her mouth to tell him some stupid joke. But he was never there to hear it. And she’d catch herself just in time.

Now, the only way she could speak to him was in her dreams. It wasn’t enough.

It would never be enough.

Every time she opened her eyes, he was still gone.

If only she could turn back time and tell him the most important words she’d ever say.

But it was too late.

She closed her eyes and swallowed. Her throat was dry with tears and the words came out croaked.

“I love you.”