Relics
By Fiona Pearson
A photograph falls from the closet shelf, twisting and dancing through the stale air. Anne picks it up. It is bizarre. Otherworldly. An ancient artefact, dated to the long forgotten year 2007. Were there even cameras back then? Anne couldn’t remember.
She sits on the carpet, the picture clutched in her hands. There is a blonde woman in the centre of the frame - it is her, presumably - but who is that man with his arms wrapped around her? Both of their heads are lightly dusted with snow, twinkle lights blurred like stars above them, the crowd melding seamlessly into the background. Happiness, it looks like, but to Anne it really feels like misery - it is so hard to keep it all straight.
A tingle works its way up Anne’s spine, turning into a shiver. It’s freezing in here. A mid-july afternoon turning into a frigid night in December. She feels a kiss on her nose - warm breath on her cheek. The smell of bourbon chokes her, and she looks around in the darkness. Strangers bustle past her, hats and scarves obscuring cold red faces. An arm is intertwined with her own, hard as granite against her cashmere coat. A voice speaks to her, and a laugh rumbles in her belly, but nothing is funny. Everything is dark and twisted, heavy with betrayal.
A twitch on her tongue, a name forming between her lips. But no. A forgotten name - an innocence hard won against the brutalities of memory. She doesn’t know that man. A relic from another time, the lover of a different blonde woman, not her.
Anne tears the picture from corner to corner, a gash erupting across the face of a dirty liar, and it should be done now. Ancient history, dead and buried. The snow melts, the ice recedes, and twinkle lights are no more than silly decorations.
John, she thinks. His name was probably John.
THE END
Author Bio: Fiona Pearson is an emerging writer from Alberta, Canada. She recently graduated from the University of Alberta with a degree in Comparative Literature, and she is looking forward to getting her Masters in Creative Writing. Over the summer of 2022, Fiona had the opportunity to attend a Creative Writing Course at Oxford University which has further inspired her journey as a writer.