Stephan Collishaw

“Besides your love / I have no ocean… Besides your love / I have no sun, / but I don’t even know where you are or with whom.”

Her heart wrenched. “Oh God!” she murmured. The pain felt crushing. The desire to run across the path and fall into her mother’s arms. To hear her father’s quiet voice. To see Josef. To know their home once more.

She noticed the shoes, good shoes, leather brogues with fine stitching. Her father’s shoes she was sure. The trousers too.

They had almost

They had almost reached the gates of the farm when Natalie heard the sharp wail. At first she thought it was the cry of a bird, but as she listened it subsided into a gurgling sob, soft and all too human. She glanced around but could see nothing. At the foot of the slope, her uncle turned his horse and waved impatiently. Natalie held up her hand. She was about to move forward when she heard it again, to her left.