By Jude Higgins
At breakfast on the terrace, we had a row that couldn’t be resolved. I looked up and saw a bank of white wedding roses against a blank sky and two sparrows equidistant on the eaves of the roof. You looked up and spied a buzzard. I told you the wild strawberries were fruiting and when I searched carefully I found two ripe berries. One for each of us. You said on your walk through a meadow of oxeyed daisies, a hare leaped up towards the sun. In a nearby field a brown horse stood motionless as if it were asleep. I said, do you know the story about the hare and the horse? You said you had never heard it and for a moment looked interested. I told you if a hare gathers white roses at the summer solstice to make a garland for the horse and feeds the horse wild strawberries, then the spirit gods will rise from the earth and all will be well in a marriage. You said, what about the sparrows and the buzzard? I said the hare must garland the horse before the sun rises and the sparrows sing. I paused, then said if a buzzard sees everything we do and calls out, all will be lost. You turned away, saying you didn’t believe in fantasies.
I said it was the longest day, we should be kind to each other.
You turned away, saying you didn’t believe in fantasies. I paused, then said if a buzzard sees everything we do and calls out, all will be lost. I said a hare must garland the horse before the sun rises and the sparrows sing. You said, what about the sparrows and the buzzard? I told you if the hare gathers white roses at the summer solstice to make a garland for the horse and feeds the horse wild strawberries then the spirt gods will rise from the earth and all will be well in a marriage. You said you had never heard it and for a moment looked interested. I said do you know the story about the hare and horse? You said on your walk through a meadow of oxeyed daisies, a hare leaped up towards the sun. In a nearby field a brown horse stood motionless as if it were asleep. I told you the wild strawberries were fruiting and when I searched carefully, I found two ripe berries, one for each of us. You looked up and spied a buzzard. I looked up and saw a bank of white wedding roses against a blank sky and two sparrows equidistant on the eaves of the roof. At breakfast on the terrace, we had a row that couldn’t be resolved.
Jude Higgins’ flashfiction chapbook The Chemist’s House was published by V.Press in 2017. She has been widely published in magazines and anthologies. Jude is the founder of Bath Flash Fiction Award, and directs Flash Fiction Festivals U.K. and the short short fiction press, Ad Hoc Fiction. @judehwriter. judehiggins.com.
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