The Writing Machine

Stories by Christian Cloud Abraham

The Woman in the Ruins

The soldiers marched aimlessly and lackadaisically onwards past the ruins of battle-stricken lands. Eternally they proceeded along a forest path. At a certain point in the woods, before the opening of the vista, the ruins of a once-glorious mansion stood shrouded in smoke. On the tattered porch of these ruins, a beautiful woman wept. A weary soldier, weak and desperate, seeing the beautiful woman and hearing her weeping, stumbled up to the doorstep of her house and fainted at her feet. Lonely and compassionate, the weeping woman took the soldier in and nursed him back to health. Soon the soldier and the woman found love among the ruins.

Then one day, it happened.

Said the soldier to the woman, “Let us leave this tattered and sad place! Just beyond the bend is the vista to happiness and to life without the ruins of the past. Quick my love, let us hurry!”

“No,” said the woman, “this is my home.” She pointed to the house of falling brick and smoldering ash, “I cannot leave.”

“Then sadness is your lover,” said the soldier, “and I cannot stay here. I will forever be grateful to you for the kindness you have shown me, but I must leave. Goodbye and farewell.”

And as he disappeared into the passing procession, she wept. But not for long. Soon, another soldier, wounded in the battle of life, heard her sobs, saw her beauty in the smoke, stumbled up the steps, and fell into her life.

END
© 2006 Christian Cloud Abraham

Posted on February 26, 2006 in
Emotion: Fear, Type: Fiction