Photo: Barni1 by Pixabay
He said he’ll be home when the ice breaks.
And every day she waited, one baby tugging at her skirts and another growing restless under her heart, and tried to not look at the field of crosses planted right outside her window. Reminders of the many who the frigid sea or dark winters or the loneliness of this place at end of the world had claimed.
Some days she hated Greenland. The endless nights. The gnawing cold. The monotony of the same few faces and the bickering that eventually picked open old scabs and gauged new hurts for the next arctic dark to revisit.
Other times she couldn’t fathom living any other place. Summer’s endless light. The sparkle on the water. Pups, babies, and not-so-babies frolicking. The wide spaces full of breath and warmth that thawed old sorrows into joy. It felt like coming home.
Will he?
For What Pegman Saw: Greenland
Na'ama Yehuda 
Na’ama Y’karah,
You wrote so much into 150 words. I felt her loneliness and anxiety. The images of one child tugging at her skirt and the other growing restless under her skirt is pitch perfect.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thank you, Rochelle! I often wonder how I’d do in such locales–a part of me KNOWS these places, as if I’d lived there before, in some life time or spirit-form or other. A part of me is drawn to the solitude and quietude and vast expanses of sky and sea and simple rhythms. But a part of me is restless and I don’t know how well I’d do cooped into prolonged winter night. Perhaps I’d bloom inward. Perhaps I’d wilt. So … the remote realities of some North Countries speaks to me, in some way. My Norse/Celtic-sense, perhaps, in-spirit at least? Who knows. I’m glad, however, that my words here spoke sense … ๐
Na’ama
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So much human emotion and environment packed into a small number of words.
Excellent work
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Thank you! ๐
It is such a powerful place, I’m glad I was able to communicate some of it in this little piece. I often wonder what life truly is for people who live in small clusters of houses on the edge of fjords. Magical and harsh, both? …
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I wonder about that too.
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On my bucket list to visit and stay for a while. We shall see … ๐
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Lots of good stuff in this. I especially like how you use the stark style to underscore a sense of longing. Well done.
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Thanks! ๐
Such evocative place made it almost write itself!
๐
Na’ama
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ืจืขืืื ืชืื ืืืืืืื.
โซโฌ
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Toda! ๐
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Lovely imagery and beautiful writing as always. I could see her waiting. Love how her world is revealed. Feels so utterly plausible!
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Thank you! ๐ So glad the ‘feel’ was transmitted … It is such a stark and beautiful place! Great prompt!
๐
Na’ama
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Such lovely writing, such a heartfelt passage, describing the tensions and the loneliness and how the environment affects the residents. Just lovely writing Na’ama
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Thank you, Lynn!
Best kind of feedback! ๐
Na’ama
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You set yourself a challenge with that opening sentence, because straightaway we know what the plot will be. You don’t disappoint; we’re left with the expected cliff-hanger.
Everything, then, comes down to how well you describe place, character and emotion in the story – and you do it magnificently. The baby “growing restless under her heart”; the field of crosses “planted right outside her window”; the claustrophobic society generating “bickering that eventually picked open old scabs and gauged new hurts”.
That’s a pretty near flawless piece of writing, Na’ama!
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Yay! Thank you Penny! What an informative, generous, and fabulous comment!
I’m so very pleased! ๐
Na’ama
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I echo everyone’s wonderful comments for this fabulous piece. I could feel all her emotions and her love/hate relationship with her homeland. And you left us feeling as she did… will he?
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Thank you, Dale!
The combination of remoteness and harsh weather and long dark winters all but had this write itself … I’m so glad it resonated!
As for her man … if he will, I hope he surrounds her with all she needs and then some. If he will not, I hope she finds someone and/or someplace that does.
XOXO
Na’ama
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Oh, he will… and probably impregnate her again before buggering off for another long trip….
๐
xoxo
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Oy vey. …
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He he he!
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