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Short short (flash) fiction - Friday Fictioneers, check it out! A wonderful weekly writing challenge for all writers, brought to you by the talented and gracious hostess (Rochelle). Click here and then – write!
This weeks photo prompt:
Photo credit: Jan Wayne Fields
Flash Fiction version:
(count – 100 words)
Paradise Lost
Remember my saying “when I am in your arms the world is a perfect place?” It was true. I felt loved, desired and safe. Three strong emotional needs we all share, I found in your arms. Isn’t that what paradise is all about? Shared experiences in the moment, our weekend in New York, wrapped in gossamer tissues of hopes, desires and promises.
Then our worlds clashed, private agendas displacing love with personal goals.
Now, memories of our brief happiness mixed with desire and longing. Loving memories of paradise … and paradise lost.
Missing the warmth of your arms.
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The full length version:
Paradise Lost
I miss the warmth of your arms. I have for 6 long months now. But your agenda was different than mine. We did connect though, didn’t we? The long weekend we spent in one of the most romantic cities on the planet, New York, was heavenly in it’s perfection.
Do you remember my telling you, when I was in your arms, the world was a perfect place? I felt loved, desired and safe – all rolled into one. Three of the strongest emotional needs humans require. I found them all – in your arms.
But that’s what paradise is all about, isn’t it? What is experienced in the moment; wrapped in gossamer tissues of hopes, desires and promises. Such heady stuff.
And so we played, laughed and loved, reality continuing, all around us, while we lived our dreams. Then our worlds clashed, the love still there but overwhelmed by our individual game plans and our inability to express ourselves well - as you pointed out after you’d been gone for awhile and we were speaking on the phone – You asked why neither one of us had looked into the other’s eyes and said “I need you and love you so much” even though we both felt it.
Each, so insecure of self we feared the other’s open rejection and our own ability to be what we felt the other wanted - so we were silent.
But happiness was mine, for a brief period of time. Now I have memories of contentment mixed in with sensual desire and longing. Such loving memories of paradise and paradise lost.
I miss the warmth of your arms.
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Thank you for reading, have a lovely day today and a beautiful tomorrow!
~ Penny
