Plate

20th Sept 2017

The cue for the six sentence story this week is "plate" . So, here, I had a go...


Acorns 

The leaves -  brown, golden, red - pirouette around  tree trunks in the park - remains of warmer days.
 Those long , sunny days when children chased each other round these same trees, while parents sat chatting on picnic blankets in the still shade of colourful parasols,  a feast of tempting summer foods laid out before them.
I shiver in the chill earthy breeze and remember a plate of cold meats, mixed green and purple leaves, sweet, red tomatoes, spring onions and  home made mayonnaise and fresh bread and butter and think that today I would prefer hot thick soup with a crispy roll.
It wasn't an unusual scene, nor an exceptional day - we'd had many such outings - except that it was the last time we would ever see Charlie.
I hold my coat around me, walk slowly around the trees and notice the green to pale brown colour of the acorns that I crunch underfoot with each step.
I don't often come through the park these days, but am on my way to see his mum and have been thinking a lot about that picnic, how happy all the children were, how Arthur and Charlie, both twelve during that week, spent the afternoon climbing trees and how, when it was time to go home they begged to stay  for just another half an hour and come home on their own.