Flash: Fork

“I am called Jane, it is not my name but it will do.”

The lands will not yield sustenance, dust the only crop farmers have reaped for many a year. When they chased us from our once verdant lands, my grandmother laid a curse and now it is come to pass for as far as I can see, just dust and dying trees.

They call me Jane, but I am Ama Tsigili of my people, Water Witch. I carry with me the Elm Fork of my Grandmother, smoothed by her hands and the hands of my mother before me. I could find the buried water for them, my enemies as they beg me to do I could lift the curse of my grandmother. I could return fertility to the land they brought us to.

“I am called Jane; I left my people along the Trail of Tears, unburied.”

FlashinthePan

Flash in the Pan is brought to you by the amazing Red of M3 fame

This week’s word is Fork. The word limit is 150 words. This one comes in at 148.

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Comments

  1. This one is divine. You outdid yourself this time. I love you used the Cherokee in the text to draw out the “called Jane”. Very emotional.
    xxx

  2. Full of thought …. unlike my luck at the strip club, I had to read it twice … but I ask this question: What was the inspiration that sparked this thought?

    • I wanted something different for ‘Fork’. I started there. Then I discovered the famous picture from the Dust Bowl era of the woman and her three children, she was touted as a White Woman, became the face of the displaced farmer but in fact she was a Cherokee. I went from there.

  3. How interesting. Reminds me of my father divining for water on our property with a forked stick. It’s accurate. Certain metals cause the pointed end of the stick to rise when held by both hands you can feel the pull. I’ve heard of people doing something similar with wire.

    • So it should Ian, the Elm Fork is a Dowsing Rod or Divining Rod. Many cultures have used similar water finding techniques even in the most arid of lands.

  4. A perfect ending, although I was too immersed in the story to imagine that’s the way it must end. Smart Water Witch and smart writer friend to tell her story. Two thumbs up.

  5. That is quite a story you packed in 150 words…excellent, Val.

  6. As brief as that is, it’s actually quite powerful.

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