Hemingway unwittingly invented 'flash fiction' with the six word story, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
Here is a tribute to the old man.
"A waiter stares out the window"
Saturday 7 May 2011
Short Story- Care Home Blues
I walk past the care home twice a day. The care home where my Grandmother lives. Once cruel and vindictive now she rots there, complacent. Demented.
I have walked past the care home twice a day for about two years. I have never been inside the care home.
Sometimes I see the residents for the care home being wheeled out onto the red brick terrace, blankets over their knees, some with mugs of tea, others chuffing cigarettes.
I squint to try to make out her frail shape but it is never her.
Two years, twice a day of being too scared to enter, scarred by memories of tab stained fingers, bad tempers, stale smelling grocery shops, betting slips, soldier soldier re-runs and lemonade in teacups.
I have walked past the care home twice a day for about two years. I have never been inside the care home.
Sometimes I see the residents for the care home being wheeled out onto the red brick terrace, blankets over their knees, some with mugs of tea, others chuffing cigarettes.
I squint to try to make out her frail shape but it is never her.
Two years, twice a day of being too scared to enter, scarred by memories of tab stained fingers, bad tempers, stale smelling grocery shops, betting slips, soldier soldier re-runs and lemonade in teacups.
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