The Closing
The tears in his eyes surprised him.
“Oh, what the actual–there is no time for this emotional crap,” he warned himself. It was time to go and he was more than ready…ready to be finished with all of this, to leave the books and the shelves and the memories behind, to turn the page on this chapter of his life, to leave the past buried forever among the stacks…
As he pressed the tape into the glass around the “closed” sign on the door, flashes of a different time barged unwelcome into his mind – flashes of light and warmth as book club groups gathered around the fireplace in the overstuffed couches engaged in stirring discussions about this week’s book, flashes of fun and laughter as children excitedly pulled their parents towards the stacks of new books on the tables and drew pictures of the characters they loved, flashes of pain as he thought of her…
Messenger bag slung across his body and jacket in hand, he breathed in the lingering smell of strong coffee, holding his breath as he took a final, hasty look around and listened…nothing..
He turned and walked out, locking the door behind him forever, satisfied with the end of the tale.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This has been a Six Sentence Story.
Each week, the lovely Ivy Walker hosts a link-up challenging writers to spin a tale in six sentences – no more, no less. Click on the link right here to find out more. While you’re there, click on the blue frog button to visit this week’s link-up where you will find great stories from great bloggers.
This week’s prompt was TAPE.
10/22/2015: Also sharing with Elena Peters’ linky party at #BlogShareLearn. Hop and over, read some great posts, meet some new bloggers…have fun!
Love this? Share the love and tell someone!
21 Comments
Comments are closed.
Excellent story! I totally loved it, and could picture it exactly as you wrote it!
Thanks, Josie!
Great story! Very end of an era feeling!!!
End of something, that’s for sure…
The third sentence is wonderfully descriptive and full of emotion and poignant memory. I think it was sad he closed the book store forever with so much that dwelled within and had gone before.
Yes, very much emotion. You definitely picked up on that.
very cool on the ‘creating a place/a time’ (btw my visual ending up, at least started with a scene from the Polanski movie ‘The Ninth Gate’) way to engage the Reader, yo.
Thank you, Clark.
Well-done! Sad and satisfying all at once.
Yes, sad and satisfying…you don’t get sinister at all?
Books have part of our lives for so many years, centuries in fact, and there is such sadness to see bookshops (both old and new), libraries and even our homes lose their bookshelves in this digital age.
I absolutely agree, Old Egg. In our home, however, the bookshelves take up quite a bit of space! Call me old fashioned!
Oh how vivid and sad!
Thanks, Christina!
But I don’t want to leave a place filled with books and chatting by the fire! Love your writing. Very evocative.
I wouldn’t either, May. I wouldn’t either.
[…] For a little bit more of this tale, read last week’s entry, The Closing. […]
short and a little bitter-sweet……..just as it should be. It left me thinking about him and the rest of his story!
The Six Sentence stories are fun, Leanne. And there is a bit more of his story here… http://themeaningofme.com/burying-the-hatchet/ Enjoy!
So much imagery, in so few words. Poignant. #blogsharelearn
Hi, Kimmie! Thanks!