Day 5 Writing Short Stories

North Star

The history of my people has always been on this island. We have always belonged to its volcanic mountains, its coconut trees, and its little hideaways. I crew up running around the tall trees and amongst the luscious green land. I helped my mother and my aunts grow our food. The first memory I have is digging up the sweet potatoes with a seashell. I wasn’t very helpful despite what my aunts said when they squeezed my cheek and praised my existence.

I knew nothing but happiness, sailing with our island throughout the seas. We saw strange lands. Stranger people with their stories and gods. The customs they brought to our island are still whispered in our memory stories. Even now, I can remember the parties we had for the visitors when I close my eyes.

But those days are gone. The island still sails, but all I find are empty lands. As empty as the island is now. I was the last little one. The last North Star, as my mother and aunts called me. I buried their bones deep into the volcanic soil. They are now part of the island, an island of lonely whispers and the winds that howl deep in the trees.

There is no one to talk to except the memory stories, the ghost, and the birds that occasionally fly to my island. I still have my sweet potatoes and the parties to celebrate all the lands tied to the sea. I have them alone as I search for the land to anchor my island. The point where it was torn off to wander the sea, the place where my people came. I want to know my people’s gods and ask them to bring all the little ones back.

I dip my toes into the cold sea and watch the waves slide past me and my island. There, just beyond the rocky shores, whales jump in and out of the water. I can hear their songs, and I sing back to them with my own broken tongue, morphed by the strange, strange lands and the sea.

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Today’s prompt included a conversational writing style, magical realism, voyage-and-return, and first-person narrative. I’m drawing a blank on what to say here; I’m still with our protagonist, dipping my toes into the sea and watching with her as the whales play in the vast, dark ocean. I want to sail with my own island, see all the cultures of the world, and have those parties where kindness is given.

Thank you for reading! Have a kind day ❤