Sad II Prompt: "I stopped missing you"

(#00587 - A222)

Casual visitors would never know this was a graveyard, since it looked like an orchard. Children of tourists played between the trees. Permanent and near-permanent residents lit incense for the burners in the shrine at the gate before they went foraging for fresh fruit.

Neither of them came here, where the new plants were.

Here, the markers were synthstone posts, not the plaques that the full-grown trees would take into their bark. Here, young trees were tended carefully by the people who missed the people who were becoming part of the station for the rest of the foreseeable eternity.

Etta carefully watered the Olive seedling bearing the marker for an old man she’d never met. Making sure she avoided the incense left smouldering by either Lyr Marken or Rael.

Then she went on to scatter slow-release fertiliser pellets by the climbing fig and the little synthstone marker that read: Boy. Loyal to his Master. Beloved by his Boss. Good dog.

She lit her incense, set it in place, and knelt.

“I stopped missing you,” she confessed. “Just today I noticed it. I’ve stopped looking for you under the table. I’ve stopped reaching out to scratch your head when I’m watching the entertainments. And I’ve stopped looking for you when I’m on my rounds in the entrance queues on patrol.” Sigh. “I’m finally used to you not being there. And when I realised it… I cried all over again.”

It would be twenty years or more before his Master’s olive tree would be strong enough to allow the fig to climb it. That was why Etta had picked a slow growing variety.

“I’m not over you, yet. I don’t think I ever will be. You’ve left a Boy-shaped hole in the cosmos and my life is a little darker because of it. And I know you’d never want me to be sad… or alone. I’m just not ready for another dog in my life. Not yet.”

The giggling of children playing carried over the wind chimes and a ceremonial gong. Etta allowed the peace off it to fill her. Let the incense calm her inner turmoil.

“You always will be my Good Boy,” she said, patting the earth before she rose. It was nearly time for her duties.

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