"The Saddest Music in the World"

Short story

I made my way through fields of grain and wildflowers, through mountains and valleys and forests. I crossed a thousand streams and brooks and rivers, in burning heat and blinding snow, taking shelter where I could. I passed a fallen temple on a mountain high, and made my way past the broken columns all around the destroyed altar. I said a prayer for my love, her eyes a faded memory like wispy smoke from a dying fire. As I knelt at that ancient altar, I heard strange music from far away, from a lonely tomb just outside the temple's ruin. I followed the funereal dirge to its source beside the deserted crypt. And there I read my love's name on the ancient eroded slab. A tear rolled from my eye as I beheld the carved likeness of her beauteous face beside the inscription, the features weathered and worn. In shock, I tried to touch it, but my hand passed through the stone...

Reviews

[Glen Yumang Manese]

Memories for which we take course... to have a better understanding... those who have gone and the likeliness of thoughts that linger in our minds... and this has a perceptive way of looking at the write... as a whole... loss in the moments for which we believe are there... but an illusion...

[Pryde Foltz]

It's perfect, but one word 'blinding'. Silly, I know, but for some reason this one word took me out. Not strong enough I think. Nitpick, I will do. lol