Suddenly the lights of Paris shined less bright. The laughter of happy times past nothing more than a distant echo. Their eyes which once sparkled with joy now streamed tears of sadness down ashen cheeks.
She leaned from the gaping window and clutched his hand. Though close, they felt a million miles apart, separated by the cold steel of the carriage door.
With a menacing roar, the train began inching its way down the platform, slowly at first as if to prolong the agony of those final heart-wrenching moments. He choked on his emotion; she sobbed and gasped as she tried to speak. But she couldn’t.
He ran beside her holding her shaking hand until the end of the platform dragged them apart. The monster headed out into the night taking with it his very reason for being.
He stood alone, alone with his thoughts, the platform deserted. Silent. Then in the chill of the midnight breeze, he heard her whispering voice.
‘Je suis désolé mon amour’ she wept.
As he stared into the darkness, tears of rain began falling from the sky.
‘Adieu mon amour’ he cried.
He sank to his knees.
“Pourquoi m’as-tu abandonné? Pourquoi?”
With thanks to Google Translate without whose help this story would not have been possible!
Sunday Photo Fiction is hosted by Susan Spaulding. This week’s photo is provided by C E Ayr
Laughing.
Without Google translate (which, incidentally, is no respecter of gender) you could just have based your story in London.
Or indeed in Dumbarton, where the featured station actually is.
Still, as Bogie famously said, We’ll always have Paris!
…or I could have bases in Bexhill-on -Sea station which is just up the road from me! No, I’ll stick with it! I bow to your superior knowledge of French. Although I lived there for years I never really got the hang of the language!
I wanna know why too!
As we were mere onlookers I guess we’ll never know! Thanks Violet
A very interesting story.
Thanks Sadje
You are welcome 🙏
So sad. If she was also so upset about leaving, i wonder why she did it.
Who knows? Thanks Mimi
Separation can be painful. Nicely captured emotion.
Indeed it can. Thanks Abhijit
More a tearing apart than a separation ~ I like the Anglo French take Kieth 😊
I love the sound of spoken French, I just hoped it would read well! Cheers Jon
That’s how I imagined it. Thanks so much John
. Such a romantic language is French, but you can’t beat an old English railway station. Shades of under the clock at Carnforth
I completely agree with everything you said! Thanks Mike.
Pourquoi, indeed. C’est domage! I’d love to know what transpired before this tearful goodbye. An effective short piece.
So would I! Merci Debbie