Remember

by Clare O’Brien

November 5th. She hesitates by the window, wanting to be out there to welcome him off the ship. She can almost feel his deep laughter, his delight.

Remember, remember. Her memory stands guard but the future frightens her. She’s lived it already, after all.  She knows she can never stop him leaving, rejoining his men. Something always sets events back on track. That’s why this is her favourite time. She could almost believe he’ll live. That’s why she’s always here, tonight. The eve of their winter wedding. 

Outside, the fireworks crackle and blaze. She turns back the bedspread and waits.



Author bio: Clare O'Brien has been a schoolteacher, a journalist, PA to a professor, press officer to a politician and social media manager to a rock star.   She now lives in Scotland by the sea, writing her first novel, ‘Light Switch’.  Her work has recently appeared in Mslexia, The London Reader, Spelk, Three Drops From a Cauldron, Cabinet of Heed, Northwords Now and poetry anthologies from The Emma Press and Hedgehog Poetry.

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Remember is part of 101 Fiction issue 25.