Rebuilding the Ruins

It was a beautiful place, the green of the forest cradling the charred remains of the house, the steel beams that would have held it up under the worst of earthquakes still standing. The birds were chirping quietly overhead and there were squirrels and other wildlife moving through the ruins.

She looked up at it and remembered the laughter of the people who had lived there. The sound of children wrestling in the backyard and the smell of the food being cooked in the kitchen.

“You’re gone now, I have accepted it,” she whispered to the trees, “But that doesn’t mean I can’t rebuild.”

image: courtesy of Wikipedia Commons, taken by Johann H. Addicks – addicks@gmx.net used under the Creative Commons Agreement

Inspired by the Light and Shade Challenge.