Scenes from my fiction novel
Locales: New York City, Bismarck, North Dakota, Montana Territory
Dates: 1932 and 1876
Genre: Historical fiction/time travel
Premise: Elizabeth Custer is given the opportunity to time-travel from 1933 to 1876, to see her husband one final time before his final battle on the Little Bighorn
Scene: After the birthday party, April 1932
Draft: She sank into the wooden rocker, grateful for the silence. It was only five in the afternoon, but she was already exhausted, as she was on days when the house bustled with company.
Birthdays.
As if a 90-year-old needed another marker of time. They meant well, she knew, but they could never understand the only thing a birthday meant to her was another year without him.
She settled back in her rocker, relaxing into the peaceful rhythm of its motion. Outside, an early spring drizzle pattered onto the sidewalk. If the temperature dropped low enough, the city would march backwards into the last throes of winter. But she would be warm, wrapped in the soft blue and gold throw, a gift from great-niece Caroline. Blue and gold. Cavalry colors. His colors.
What little light was left snaked across the window sill, barely illuminating the hand-painted scene on her Viennese clock. Not that she needed it to track the time. It ticked away as relentless as her heart pumped out the moments of her life. But what a life. What a life.
Would he even know her now, her face grooved with the remnants of smiles and frowns, her skin turned to parchment?
Reaching up, her bird-like fingers caressed the silver and gold ivy-shaped pin he had given her on her 21st birthday. Tarnished from years of her constant touch the metal was worn thin. Just like me, she thought.
Earlier, the interviewer had asked “Do you miss him?”
She smiled that girlish smile she had never lost, leaving his question unanswered. But now, in the dark and the silence, there was no denying the question.
As a single tear slipped down her cheek she chided herself for an old lady’s sentimentality. But even now, fifty-six years after his death, she missed the feel of his hand on her face, and the passion his deep blue eyes that made her gasp for air. But those days were gone . . . long gone . . . and she wondered if she would have married "that Custer boy" if she had known the future. A silly question, but one she couldn’t help but consider.
At the party, they had asked her, when she blew out the candles, to reveal her birthday wish. She declined, blaming superstition for her silence. The truth was, her wish was ridiculous and without hope, but wished for nonetheless.
All she wanted, before she died, was one last day with him.
*This work-in-progress is copyrighted 2009 Nancy Hendrickson. Reproduction is prohibited.
**Note to readers: Be kind, gentle reader . . . . and I do appreciate your comments.
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{ 1 comment }
I am reminded of the line–you had me at hello. This scene draws the reader in instantly, sets the mood perfectly, and leaves questions about how Elizabeth’s wish is to be achieved. I wonder how the time travel will be written; will we go back and forth between past and present or stay in one time period and then the other. You said so much in such a little space with lovely use language–reminds me of writing a poem. I already know some of Elizabeth and want to know more. Please continue soon.