one last scarf that had been overlooked. Stuffing it in the shoebox, he continued
around the house in hope of erasing the last traces of her. Finally, after many
minutes of painstakingly combing through every nook and cranny of his home, he
set out to the coppice that he had visited so many times in his childhood, lighter in
hand. Sitting underneath a young maple tree, one that had started its life around the
time that he had, he dropped the shoebox on the ground with a heavy heart. It had
become quite weighty, bogged down by ribbons, threads, and photographs. This is
for my own good, Caleb thought to himself as he stuffed twigs and kindling under
the box. The lighter came to life with a single click, and the stage was set. He coaxed
the single flame closer to a tuft of cloth sticking out of the box, which ignited soon
after. The flame, which started out as a small spark, grew as it ate through the
cardboard. Shutting off the lighter, Caleb sat cross-legged on the grass in front of
the fire, staring pensively into the flames. He wondered what his mother would
think of this, and whether she would believe that he was disrespecting her legacy or
that he was only trying to alleviate the pain of her departure, one that hung over
him like a dark shroud and tormented him day and night. The flames soon licked at
the assortment of pinecones, twigs, and leaves, and the fire roared like a great beast
had been unleashed. Caleb made no move to escape the red and orange tongues of
smoke and flame, but from within the wisps he saw his mother’s silhouette once
again, arms held out. He inched ever closer to the fire.
"Go,” the fire seemed to growl as his mother gestured wildly for him to run as far
away from the flames as he could. Casting one last look at the cinders, Caleb
scrambled to his feet. It took all of the willpower that he had to move away from
what remained of his memories of his mother, the ones that he thought would hurt
him the most to look back on. The fire expanded, soon consuming the young maple
and its siblings beside it. Tears washed over Caleb’s face, tears that he had held back
for so long. Now several meters away from the growing flames, he sank to the
ground as he let out an anguished sob.
"Eleanor…” Her name slipped out of his mouth with great difficulty, yet it was the
most comforting sound that he could hear over the crackling and howling of the
flames before him. “…I’m sorry.” Shakily returning to his feet, Caleb turned his back
on the charred remainders of his old life, still glowing red inside of the inferno that
threatened to consume him. Behind him, embers of the past disintegrated, nothing
more than a speck of ash in the whirlwind of the present.