Short Story Laurel

The reading of the will was short. No relatives, few possessions, hardly any money. Most of it went to Laurel; the rest to a local charity. She took the boxes full of books and trinkets and the weight of it reminded her of the funeral on the boat, the moments before she said goodbye. This wasn’t something they prepared you for. The fact that death left behind a thousand little goodbyes. It was hardly final. It was something that you need to spill out again and again.

Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.

Laurel pulled out moths from her mouth—one, then two, then three. They were small and fluttering creatures, flying from her fingers as soon as she released them. Dust from their wings coated her tongue, making her cough, gag. The taste of it reminded her of ash, the last pull of a cigarette as it burned up to the filter, something toxic and foreign.

Grief flew away from her, heading towards the open window. Laurel stumbled past the moths, to the bathroom, turning on the taps to rinse out her …show more content…
It was rare to have swarms attack others, but it wasn’t unheard of. There were laws in place to police it if it did, though it was still a point of contention over how much control people had over the bugs. Laurel watched as they crawled up and down his arms, restless.

Laurel shifted in her seat, uncomfortable and sweating despite the air-conditioning units working full blast in the summer heat. She didn’t belong here. Moths perched precariously on her shoulders and knees, and she wanted to crumple them all up. Catching one in her hand, she tried to crush it in a fist, but when she opened her hand, it was empty, as if nothing was ever there.

The woman kept crying, almost transforming into part of the background hum, and Laurel saw through the windows that the skies were painfully blue. The colour of Dan’s eyes. The shade of sky that marked the day she threw his ashes into the