“I’ll take this train to Seattle, then a boat to Alaska, find some gold and come back to marry you. Love you. Don’t forget me. I’ll be back.”
After a month, she stands at the train station waiting for some news. She gets a letter.
“Dearest Maggie, I miss you so much. I stayed in Seattle a little longer than expected, but now I’ll be leaving to Alaska in 2 days. I’ll try to find lots of gold to come back to you. Love, D.”
She comes back to the station every month. Nothing for a few months.
Then a letter comes, short and weird.
“Dear Maggie, I’ll have to stay longer here. Miss you, D.”
She continues going to the station every month, hoping to hear from her love.
8 months after the last letter, she gets another one:
“Dear Margareth, I’m sorry if this breaks your heart. I’ve married someone else and our baby boy arrived yesterday. I’m not coming back. Best regards, Denny.”
(164 words)
This post was written in response to the Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers, with photo prompt by Louise, from The Storyteller’s Abode.
The see more stories, click the blue frog below.
Creative Busyness 
What?! What! Seriously just like that ……. Well written.>:(
Lovely and well written too. Maggie would have filled his backside with buck shots if she catches him.
Very nicely done. 🙂 I like the changing tone of the letters she receives – you can feel him growing more distant from her through the wording.
Oh my gosh what a RAT! I suggest he not come back around her again. Your story was well told – build-up to the end then, WHAM! Great story and thank you for participating in Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers Challenge!
Nice story ! Distance makes people distant, esp. those who are not very close at heart.
Poor woman. He just should have set her free to begin with!
Yeah, I don’t really think he’s a bad person.
He loved her at the beginning and had the intention to come back, but with the time and distance he fell in love for someone else. Happens all the time.
What I do think he did wrong was to wait so long to tell her so. But maybe he was just a coward, insecure soul, afraid of hurting her, and waited until he was confidend of what he wanted (which could have been prompted by the birth of his child?) to finally take the courage to write.
So not the nicest guys, but I don’t really blame him… (note that all of that internal thoughts of him I thought of after reading all the comments, not during the writing process… ;o)
Thanks all for the comments.
How heartbreaking for her after all those months of waiting. So many “distance relationships” end this way. Absence doesn’t always make the heart grow fonder. I do think he should have told her earlier though, instead of keeping her hanging on, with hopes of his return. His behaviour was cowardly, I think. Well written, Etol. 🙂
I don’t know how she managed to wait so long! He should have told her about the same time he found out he was going to be a father. I guess he was just keeping his options open! She’s better off without him. Great story…it does reflect the type of thing that happens sometimes.
Very well written! He sounded flippant in the beginning itself and the tone of his letters changed over time. She has been sweet and loyal but he did not deserve her…