My Short Stories - A Collection

Lola Summers

Red brick walls and a gabled roof. A wooden silo. A stone arch. Dark skies hanging over the wheat fields.

Lola knew them like she knew her dead parents: not at all.

She sat on wood planks, bouncing along the road as the horses trotted. That day, the day of her arrival, her only friends where the farm hay piled high around her, the merchant's ointments stored in bottles, and whatever other strange items he sold, stored away in the wagon.

When the horses slowed, she jumped down to meet the earth. The soil was warm in her fingers.

A man walked out of the brick house and directed the wagon off his farm. One hand on the horse's bridle and the other pointing South, he showed the first man out.

Angry clouds milled about, crackling and booming at each other's jokes. The air hung heavy against her skin, thick as honey. The voices of the men behind her caught the breeze, floating off to a cooler place by the sea.

The sea.

It was the cliffs that caught Lola's eye. With the movement of a ghost, she drifted toward them. Above her, the gray sky bellowed and howled, their breath enveloping her. Their arms, thought wet and slippery, reached down to graze the field, reaching to hug her. All around, fat drops of water began racing towards land. When she crouched, the grass, deep forest green, almost swallowed her. Almost.

It was then that a sweet song graced her ears. It was gorgeous. It was every love she'd ever lost. It was every future she looked to with hope. It was silk, it was pearls, it was... it was a song to die for.

Lola found herself at the edge of the cliff, her hands reaching for the water, her soul yearning for the song.

Perhaps she was delusional, too. She could've sworn she saw something in the dark, curling waves. The waves pounding the cliff face.

Panic washed over her. Her heart was seized and thrown from great heights. Her breath spiked. There was something in the water. A young woman!

She called to her.

Her voice was the most mystical thing Lola had ever heard, almost as if it echoed, or came to her from the inside tunnels of a seashell, or a cave in the moonlight, sparkling and polished.

She had to go.

She threw off her white knit sweater and prepared to leap off the great cliff when her brain slipped. Yes, really. Or so it felt.

Then everything was darker than night.

When she awoke, Lola was neither in the wooden silo or on the stone arch, but seated at a table. It was like it happened all over again, like she was not lost but somehow happened to return to the evil building of her capture.

But this was not that place.

This was no orphanage.

It was only a farmhouse.

A young boy gazed at her curiously. He looked to be about ten.

"I saved you," he said simply.

"Oh," she replied. She hadn't known she needed saving. "There was a person in the water. Did you save them too?"

"No."

A pause.

Then, "Why?"

The boy shrugged. "A siren."

"Oh."

They sat there like that, not speaking. Not moving very much, either.

Lola wondered why the siren had not called to this boy. She wondered about a lot of things, actually. That was one. 

The boy broke the silence first.

"I'm Stone," he said. "I'm your new brother."

Her brain felt muddy, but she doubted she would forget about a sibling. She frowned, trying to make sense of it.

"Foster brother," Stone clarified. It struck her as an odd name.

Add it to the list of wonders.

The End.

Hi, hope you're doing well lovely
Thx sm for reading <33
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