Fila stared at the map, tracing the 800 miles that lay ahead. Mules hitched, wagon loaded, farm sold. Nothing of home, of him, remained, save the shotgun he’d carried to the barn that day. She’d keep the shotgun as a reminder when memories of love and life wanted back in.

Susan Hunt is a retired developmental editor and technical writer. She writes for herself these days, imagining other lives in other times. She thinks that 50-words are just about enough for her attempts at fiction.