Photo prompt: © Douglas M. MacIlroy
“Do you still have it?”
“Let me see,” he nodded at the screen even though he knew she couldn’t see him.
“Okay.”
The tremor in her voice told him everything: How tender she felt, how brave she was, how she couldn’t bear for him to ask directly lest it shatter what brittle control she managed to maintain.
“Got it,” he breathed. Attached. Hit ‘send.’ “Check your email.”
The line was silent. Then her voice, full of tears. “I knew it. I knew it hadn’t been a dream. She said she’d visit. From the after. Exactly this way. … And she came.”
For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers
Na'ama Yehuda 
That’s poignant but uplifting.
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I’m glad it came across this way. I’d had some ‘visitors’ in bird form from loved ones who’d passed, and though I cannot prove it, I am convinced that those times the birds were ‘messengers of hello.’ It felt like a hug. It felt tender, too, but in a way that fills and stretches the heart. I hope those who are missing loved ones – whether in this world or the next – have small points of connection via memories, photos, calls, or ‘messengers.’
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birds write messages in my sky, now free of planes
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Yes!
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Na’ama Y’karah,
Your story takes wing and gives the reader hope; Lovely telling.
Shalom and stay well,
Rochelle
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Thank you, Rochelle! Stay well yourself! xo
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Eerie… years ago, before personal computers were everywhere, I started to write a story a fantasy/sci-fi in which a spirit used the computer to communicate with the protagonist. And here you’ve used the same device. I like. 🙂
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All that’s old is new again 🙂
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Sounds like a quote 🙂
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I think it IS a quote, or an expression, or something. I certainly cannot take credit for it! 🙂
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🙂
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🙂
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Good to know the afterlife is moving with the technological times 🙂 Sweet.
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🙂 a spirit’s gotta do what a spirit’s gotta do … 😉
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I like it – poignant with a surprise ending.
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Thanks! I’m glad you liked it!
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I got a birthday card from my grandmother, months after she died. It weirded me out for a second. It turned out my aunt sent it.
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Wow! Well, I guess one would wonder, wouldn’t they? And … what gave your aunt the idea to send it to you as if from your grandmother? One COULD hypothesize that the idea came to her in a dream … and … well … We don’t really know, do we?
Thank you for this comment!
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It was because my inheritance check was inside. She said she hoped it didn’t freak me out.
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🙂 That was nice of her!
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The ending is really well done, very emotional.
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Thank you! I’m glad you liked it. I find such ‘messages’ to be both tender and heartwarming in their reminder of connections lost but there …
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You do a great job of converging onto a point of joy here.
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Thank you! I was hoping for that joy of connection and vindication and relief at validation and being ‘seen’…
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This was absolutely lovely, Na’ama.
When I got my new laptop and installed my email program, for some strange reason, my “sent” folder seemed to refill and there were emails from Mick, my dad, my friend Brenda – people who had passed in 2014, 2013, 2012… Definitely felt like a message from the other side even though. Well… ok, no relation but made me think of it.
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Actually, I think it is the perfect relation … It is so amazing when these things happen, isn’t it? Totally a message from the beyond in my view. I don’t care how others explain it … even if it IS possible ‘technically’ for it to have other reasons. I’m sticking with the ‘hello from far ago’ explanation. XOXO
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I’m with you on that. Let’s stick to the ‘hello from far ago’ explanation.
xoxo
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YEAH!!! Shall we make us some HFFA merch’? 😉
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Absolutely!
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😀
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Life comes and goes but the digital cyber world is forever. Nice finish to the story.
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Thank you, James! Yes, the cyber world is (so far) forever … some may say, not unlike the world of spirits … though I don’t know much about the latter … 😉
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It could be, who knows these things. 🙂
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exactly … 🙂
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You’ve given us two lovely characters there. I particularly like the man, who shows such sensitivity.
And it’s a heart-warming and intriguing story, open to multiple interpretations. Elegantly written, too.
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Thank you, Penny! I love your feedback and how detailed it is in pointing out your perceptions of the characters. Yeah!! 🙂
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Powerful and full of hope
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Thank you, Michael!
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If the spirits wanna reach us, they gotta move with the times.
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They sure will! 🙂
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A tweet from the afterlife? I don’t know how I feel about the possibility of having Twitter in the afterlife! Here, it just seems like a forum for trading insults.
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Not a Tweet!!! Just a bird … 😉 Lets not give all birds a bad name … (For the record, some birds coo, hoot, cackle, quack, honk, whistle … 😉 They RESENT being called ‘tweeters’ ) 😉
Here’s to having bird visitors, minus tweets … 😉
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Good point. And when they SING, that’s a special treat 🙂
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Indeed! I love bird song. I like pigeon flight-school on my air-conditioner a little less … 😉
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🙂
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🙂
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