PROMPT © Douglas M. MacIlroy
They’d been her charges since they were five; now they were dispersing to higher schools. She liked to think with a good start. She was sending them out to bloom into the butterflies she hoped they’d become.
But today was sadder than the emptied playground.
This year one butterfly wouldn’t emerge. Melissa wouldn’t be graduating.
As her pupils waved goodbye, she imagined she saw the pretty smile and ponytails.
‘Why did it have to be her?’ But she knew she’d be asking the same for any of them. ‘Why did it have to be?’ Sometimes life just doesn’t proffer answers.
Written for Friday Fictioneers – a 100 words story based on a photo prompt. Hosted by Rochelle. Read the other entries here.
Michael Wynn 
Oh, that was so beautifully written and so sad!
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
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Thank-you Susan
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Such a sad note amongst her pride at seeing another group growing up.
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Yes, always so much sadness for the one that was lost, tainting the joy of those going out to prosper
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Such sadness along with the newest crop of butterflies this year.
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Thanks, Draliman. A young life taken is always so sad
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Nice one, Michael, Sometimes life doesn’t even proffer the right questions
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Thanks, Neil, you’re dead right
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We are always letting go of someone, aren’t we?
Good stuff.
Tracey
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Thanks Tracey
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Beautifully written.
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Thank-you Jilly
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Beautifully written. Really liked the deep last line.
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Thank-you, Moon
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How sad. Reminded me of when I was in fifth grade, and a boy in my class was killed while delivering newspapers on his bike. It changed the classroom for a long time, that empty chair.
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Thanks. I was reminded of a young girl in my son’s class when he was still at school. She was taken by Meningitis, very suddenly.
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That’s a horrible disease. So sorry.
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It comes out of nowhere and leaves little time to react. Thanks
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Beautifully written.
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Thank-you
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A beautiful sentiment with the blooming butterflies. A story that has impact and leaves me wondering what happened to Melissa.
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Melissa was a young girl at my son’s school, (He’s grown up now) who was taken by Meningitis very suddenly leaving a horrible aftermath as you can imagine. So many things we couldn’t understand, most of them starting with ‘Why?’
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This has added poignancy given it was based in fact. Sudden death, especially of a child, impacts so many and for so long.
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Beautifully done, Michael. The pride/sadness that teachers must go through sometimes.
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Thanks, Dale. I’m sure the loss of a young pupil hurts them horribly.
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It must indeed.
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You have written this beautifully. With all the shooting at schools in the USA there must be lots of teachers asking those same questions.
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Thanks, Irene. I hadn’t though about that angle, as the young girl I was thinking of died suddenly of meningitis but you are right, what was rare, has become more common with all the sick killings.
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Such sadness! Beautifully portrayed!
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Thank-you
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I liked the way you constructed the story, using the teacher’s parting from her class to amplify the more final parting of losing a pupil to death. The two trains of thought resonate together very well.
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Thank-you
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Powerful take on the prompt and beautifully written.
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Thank-you
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Dead? I prefer to think moved away.
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You have a good point
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You’ve told this so well. We feel what the teacher feels.
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Thanks Dawn
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great piece of writing. a bit of melancholy didn’t hurt.
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Thanks
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Beautiful writing and so sad to have to let go.
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Thank you
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Teachers have almost a parental relationship with their students and to have to let someone that you hoped to see grow up and use the skills you taught them, is heartbreaking.
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Thank-you, I pleased you got that from this piece, that’s what I was hoping to achieve
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You tune in to the teacher’s mood so well – the child’s absence, so unfair, such a painful burden to have to carry. A sensitively told story.
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Thank-you
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A heartfelt story. The butterfly metaphor is beautiful.
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Thank you
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Oh gosh… gutwrenching…
😢
That twist snuck up on a reader
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Thanks Laurie
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Because of the times, I too thought school shooting. I can’t imagine taking care of so many little ones and losing them in any way. Teachers must learn each kids’ personalities and love them, worry about them or just hope for the best.
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The times do make you think about what the teachers must have to endure at times.Thanks Alicia
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Well told, drew us into the teacher’s perspective very forcefully.
As my favourite poem, Don’t Quit, says, “Life is odd with its twists and turns, as every one of us sometimes learns.”
My husband says that within a year of their Grade 12 Graduation, three of his classmates were dead. As the cliche says, “young men in the prime of life.”
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That for me is the depth of the sadness, in their prime or even, in this case, having their prime snatched away from them before they got there
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Well written, Michael, and I love the teacher POV.
We always ask “Why?” this one or that one was taken from us. I guess God needs a few butterflies in his garden too.
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Thanks, Russell. It’s the eternal question,’why?’ in these situations
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How sad it can be with all those butterflies who never will fly… love the metaphor.
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Thanks, Bjorn
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Dear Michael,
Such a tragic and poignant story. The teacher’s heartbreak was tangible. Obviously she’s a good teacher and one who cares about her charges beyond the classroom walls. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thanks Rochelle
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Beautifully written, Michael!
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Thank you
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