FFF - Flash Fiction Friday

This week's prompt: She stared at her reflection in the silver spoon

She stared at her reflection in the silver spoon. Tears ran down her face as she was hit with the impact of what her reflection portrayed.


Why does a spoon turn you upside down, anyway, she wondered.

But at that moment, that’s exactly how she felt. Upside down.

Just the day before, she was sitting there at her kitchen table with a friend, drinking coffee, laughing, and expressing how much she was enjoying her new part time position at the daycare.

She would never have imagined that two successive phone calls the next morning would turn her world upside down.

Her husband called to say he was being transferred to Toronto in three months time. They always knew it was a possibility and they’d talked about the what-ifs and ways it would change their lives. They dreamed of all the exciting things the big city would offer, but in her heart she really hoped it would never happen. But now it had.

Suddenly the dreams of exciting things became dread of what they’d leave behind. Family, friends, their home finally renovated the way they wanted it, and so near to being mortgage-free. Life in small town Alberta was the only life they’d ever known.

The telephone handset was still warm from the call from her husband when it rang again.

“Jill, it’s Dad.” She could tell by the waiver in his voice she’d better grab a chair. “They’ve taken Mom to hospice.” That was, without a doubt, the hardest conversation she’d ever taken part in.

In a subconscious effort to wash away her upside down reflection, her shaking hand immersed the silver spoon in her steaming cup of coffee. Clink. Clink. Clink. She couldn’t bring herself to stop stirring.