THE LAMP IN THE PARK

 

Photo Copyright: Al Forbes

This story was written for Sunday Photo Fiction–August 21st, 2016. Each week the host, Al Forbes, provides a picture prompt. The challenge for each member of the group is to write an original story or poem with no more than 200 words, not including the title and inspired by the prompt.

I’m sorry I missed the story last week. I was ill with a head cold. I’m feeling much better now.

To read the other stories written by group members, just click on the link below, then on the little blue frog in the blue box.

The link to the other stories this week is as follows:

https://sundayphotofictioner.wordpress.com/2016/08/21/sunday-photo-fiction-august-21st-2016/

Genre: Historical Fiction

Word Count: 199 Words

THE LAMP IN THE PARK by P.S. Joshi

Laura had long been meeting her beau, John, in the park. They’d played there as children. But then her father told her not to see John again. He’d chosen someone more suitable for her.

Her heart broke as she told John at their last meeting. The man her father had chosen was much older. She told John she’d be unhappy for the rest of her life. He told her his heart was broken also.

There was a dreadful influenza epidemic in the village. Many were dying. Laura’s father hired a nurse to take care of her. Money wasn’t a worry. Laura remembered little of what happened after she became ill. She did hear her father’s choice for a husband had died.

Well, she thought, I’m sorry he died, but now I won’t have to marry him. As the hours passed, she wondered about John. Her father would never mention him. She didn’t dare ask.

Now here she was once more beneath the same park lamp. John came to her and they embraced.

“Oh John,” she said, “Now we’re together forever.”

Her father stood and cried as her coffin was lowered into the ground near John’s grave.