The snow had blown in through the open door. She was sat there again on the floor, legs straight out, hands by her sides propping herself up. Her bare legs looked almost blue in the fading light.
“You came back,” she said.
I shut the door behind me and put the shopping down on the table. In the gloom it was hard to see her at all.
“Mummy, you came back.”
I went over to the fire and set the wood, and as I scrabbled around in the dark for the matches I could feel her come and sit by my side. The box was cold and damp and the first two matches would not light but the third match lit and with it I set the papers burning at the top of the stack I’d built. I watched the papers burn and the kindling beneath it catch alight and then the larger wood below and on down and down layer by layer until the whole pyramid was ablaze.
I turned away and looked back at the room. The snow had melted away, leaving a few pools of water across the floor. I was alone. I wiped my eyes clear and began to tidy the shopping away.
__________
Notes:
1. Yet another unpublished 2013 thing
2. I think I was probably feeling a little miserable back then
