Homecoming

© Ayr/Gray

The Unicorn Challenge.

A magical new weekly writing opportunity from him – C. E. Ayr – and me.
The rules are
Maximum of 250 words.
Based on photo prompt.
That’s it.

Click here to read other stories from the prompt: Unicorn Challenge 26/05/23

Homecoming

A whispering runs through the village tonight.
She passes the row of houses on the shore and net curtains twitch.
She knows they’re watching, of course she does, but she walks on, head held high, the boy by her side.

A phone rings in a cottage.
‘Hello.’
‘Did you see who’s back?’
‘Aye, I did that. Catriona Colquhoun. She’s just passed the door. I never thought she’d have the nerve.’
‘Is she alone?’
‘No, the lad’s with her.’
‘How old will he be now?’
‘Must be eleven, maybe twelve…’

Further along the road, in another house, a man and a woman sit by the fire, drinking mugs of tea.
‘It’s just as well her father’s not here to see this day. Died of shame he did, the poor man.’
‘And she never said who the father was?’
‘No, she never did…’

The gossip doesn’t bother Catriona.
She’s long ceased to care what they think of her.
She’s here with David, her son, so that he will know the beauty of the mountains and lochs of his native land.
And she wants to have him formally acknowledged.

She’s had a new gravestone put up for her father.
The wording is spare:
Here lies Angus Colquhoun, husband of the late Sheila Colquhoun, father of Catriona and grandfather of David.

Tomorrow she will take David to see the stone.
But she will never tell him that this is his father’s grave.