This poignant short fiction explores the themes of grief and solitude through the lens of a man named Claude. Inspired by the Blue Mountains, the story depicts Claude's retreat into his own world, finding solace in the familiar rhythm of the fig tree and the rain. The narrator, a voice seemingly lost to Claude's grief, reflects on their shared past and the painful reality of his fractured state.
Inspired by her Blue Mountains surroundings, HSC English dux Grace Costigan submitted a short fiction. Read two short extracts here.“I’d rather sail away. Like a swan that’s here and gone”In Claude’s backyard there is a spotted fig tree.In out. Out in.
Claude and the fig tree and the rain understand each other, for there is no need to explain the aching which has buried itself within his mind.Of course, it took me a while, but somewhere along the way I came to accept the fact that the rain and the fig tree are Claude’s new confidantes. Once, the pain was heavy for I was a slice of life’s beauty which had wrapped itself around Claude’s finger like a child’s pudgy hand and their mother’s soft thumb.
As though a big smear of Vaseline has been rubbed into the fabrics of the earth, in winter at dusk the sun’s light warps the world into slimy spectacles. It’s an awkward time of the evening, when the light is no longer fully there but the darkness is still just waking up.
Grief Solitude Memories Relationships Loss
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