Tryst at Pine Woods

lillian

They met late in life. Widow and widower, their rooms were down the hall from each other at Pine Woods Rest Home. He insisted on being called James. Everyone knew her by Sunny. They both despised bland food and working jig saw puzzles. She liked flippy organza dresses and he always wore a tie. While many dozed in front of the blaring television, they shouted out answers to Jeopardy in a friendly competition. That Christmas season, they sat beside each other holding hands during sing-alongs. On New Year’s Eve, they joined in on the countdown at 9 PM. In her silk nightie that night, as the clock glowed 11:30, she heard the pre-arranged quiet knock at her door. “If you are a dreamer, come in” she trilled. This would indeed be a dream come true. Who said lovemaking is the domain of the young?

Today I’m hosting Prosery Monday at dVerse. In Prosery, writers are asked to write a piece of flash fiction that can be no more than 144 words, sans title, and include a specific line from a poem that the host provides. The line must be exactly as written in the original poem, except the punctuation can be changed. The line I’m having people include in their flash fiction today is If you are a dreamer, come in. It’s from Shel Silverstein’s poem Invitation from his book of poetry for children entitled Where the Sidewalk Ends. Prosery Mondays are the ONLY days at dVerse where we do not write poetry – we write flash fiction that includes a specified line from a poem.

Photo by alevision.co on Unsplash in the public domain.

45 thoughts on “Tryst at Pine Woods”

  2. kim881 April 12, 2021 / 3:08 pm

    Your story has given me a warm glow, Lill! What an ending!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Ingrid April 12, 2021 / 3:08 pm

    This is so heartwarming, Lillian! I can just imagine the pair of them having a riot while everyone else doses in their chairs…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • lillian April 12, 2021 / 3:38 pm

      Oh yes….and don’t you think they put on silly hats and blew those noise makers at each other during the party? I bet they even danced a bit! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      • Ingrid April 13, 2021 / 6:32 am

        I bet they did! 🙂

        Like

  4. Ellecee April 12, 2021 / 3:16 pm

    I love this story, so tender and sweet❤️🙏

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. Mish April 12, 2021 / 3:17 pm

    Aww, this is precious and so well done. In my heart, I hope there are some true stories like this one. 😉

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • lillian April 12, 2021 / 3:39 pm

      Always happy to hand out some heartwarming….especially in these days. 🙂 Glad you enjoyed! Welcome back, Bjorn. You were missed.

      Like

      Reply
  7. msjadeli April 12, 2021 / 3:23 pm

    Your story proves you’re as young as you feel. Nice fantasy for the young at heart.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • lillian April 12, 2021 / 3:40 pm

      You’re as young as you feel…..well….most of the time. Sometimes my brain tells me feet to do that triple time step I used to do so easily in tap shoes and I’m lucky if I can muster the soft shoe! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  8. Beverly Crawford April 12, 2021 / 3:58 pm

    What a touching story to get us all on the right path. I’m afraid I’d already gone astray with nonsense!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • lillian April 12, 2021 / 6:42 pm

      Well….do remember that Shel Silverstein specialized in nonsense 🙂

      Like

      Reply
  10. Glenn A. Buttkus April 12, 2021 / 4:16 pm

    A lovely and touching tribute to amour for the aged. Rest Homes are infamous for the older men who still have a pulsing libido scoring multiple lady friends. Your prose, also, is a perfect illustration for your prompt.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • lillian April 12, 2021 / 6:43 pm

      Thank you, Glenn. The passion need never die! 🙂

      Like

      Reply
  12. Gillena Cox April 12, 2021 / 4:41 pm

    Oh my oh my. This is so romantic

    Happy Monday

    Much💛love

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • lillian April 12, 2021 / 6:44 pm

      Happy Monday to you as well. Glad you enjoyed!

      Like

      Reply
  13. K.Hartless April 12, 2021 / 6:08 pm

    You make such real connections in so few words. The details of their connection make this heart-warming and just the fuzzy flash I needed to end my night. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • lillian April 12, 2021 / 6:44 pm

      Always glad to provide a fuzzy flash or two! 🙂

      Like

      Reply
    • lillian April 12, 2021 / 6:44 pm

      Me too! Happy endings are the best! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  15. robtkistner April 12, 2021 / 6:54 pm

    Lillian, so wonderful, gentle, romantic — and just the right amount of naughty! Excellent, truly!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • lillian April 12, 2021 / 7:01 pm

      Thanks, Rob. Your comment made me smile 🙂

      Like

      Reply
  20. Pingback: Dreamers Only | A Dalectable Life
  23. calmkate April 14, 2021 / 5:40 pm

    delightful tale … I worked in aged care, doing workshops with staff about ‘sexuality’, their residents were unquenchable!

    Like

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s