The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
The Jar By The Door
by E.A. Black
Eleanor stooped hunchbacked as she swept up the rice from the wedding. She scooped up a handful of the tiny white dreams the couple now husband and wife had promised to each other and was overwhelmed with sadness. Her marriage lasted only two years. No children. Her husband had it annulled. It was as if she never existed at all. But that was so many long years ago.
She never remarried. Dated little and bore no heirs. She didn’t live alone if you include her three cats as constant companions, but even they came and went as they pleased, stopping by only to be fed. Eleanor was used again as she had been all her life.
Wishing her age were 36 instead of the reversal of 63, she considered the timeline of her life. She would never have married Joe. She’d have quit her boring, soul-sucking job as a secretary. She wanted her youth back; a second chance, but none came. She recalled the cold cream jar in her bathroom medicine cabinet. Her youth, once vibrant and alive, haunted the bubbly blue cream. She saw her once young face in that jar of cream every time she used it but the wrinkles and liver spots would not vanish.
Father Mackenzie spoke a short sermon at her funeral, but no one heard his words. No one came. As alone as Eleanor, he preached to the ghosts that haunted his church. He buried Eleanor in a small, unobtrusive plot behind the chapel with nothing on her grave other than her name – Eleanor Rigby. Her soul was not saved that day. She was as alone in death as she was in life.
Fiction © Copyright E. A. Black
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
More from E.A. Black:
Midnight Movie Creature Feature 2
Short Story: Trailer Trash Zombies
Please step inside the May December Multiplex! Check out any of our thirteen screens for tales that will titillate, tease, and terrify. Come check out a host of other nasty beasties. So pop some corn, pour a beverage of choice (alcohol is permitted provided you have appropriate ID), and pick out your most comfy seat. Yes, come in and enjoy the show. And the best part is…your ticket is good for every screen! No need to sneak from one theater to the next…it is ALL included in the price of admission! Hurry and find your seat, the show will start as soon as you are ready!
Stories by Theric Jepson, Lillian Scernica, Stuart Conover, Chantal Boudreau, Matt Kurtz, EA Black, Tom Ribas, Suzi M, D Alan Lewis, Jill Behe, Elsa Carruthers, Jay Wilburn, and Michael James McFarland.
Spreading the Writer's Word 
Sadly haunting.