StoryVerse〔16〕

Reach

Ineptly holding the knife, you reach back towards the wine-dark jacket hanging on the hook. Digging into the expanse of the pocket, you pull forward a small bronze statue of a horse performing dressage. You have seen this before in an old picture in a family album. This belonged to your grandmother, who died from tuberculosis before you were born. Music begins playing in another room, and you drop the figurine to the floor in a loud crash and hear shuffling feet in the distance.

Do you pick up the figurine or go follow the music coming from the next room?

〔⍺〕〔go back〕〔pick up figurine〕〔follow the music〕

Brian writes Standing in Doorways, a newsletter dedicated to essays and stories of lingering in those spaces on the margins and along the edges, where decisions build character and challenge notions of access and separation.