31 Days of Writing: Day Twenty-six "Make Your Own Prompt"

Victoria's prompt: Create and respond to your own post.

My prompt {stolen from some college}: Create a short story with 26 sentences, each sentence starting with the next letter of the alphabet.

The Reunion

A long time ago, a child was born to a poor family. Believing themselves unable to provide for this new baby, the mother and father tearfully asked another family to raise their daughter. Crying, they bid farewell to the infant and blessed the adoptive parents in this sacrificial endeavor.

Decades later, this infant daughter-grown-to-woman went back to find the home of her birth parents. Encountering these parents created a tension within her; part of her wanted to embrace them and thank them, part of her wanted to ask why they gave her up, and part of her didn't know what it wanted. Faltering steps led her closer and closer to the home where she was born. Eager but timid, full of both anticipation and dread, she reached her destination. Gone were her ideas about how this situation would play out. Hesitantly, she rapped on the door. It opened after what felt like years.

Just moments previously, an older couple prepared to sit down in front of their fireplace. Kneeling, the man added a couple logs to the fire, then shakily stood to his feet. Limping from a stiff knee, the man made his way to the chair next to his wife's. Many evenings have passed like this one, sitting together before the fire. Now, though, their evening was to be interrupted...

Outside, the young woman waited as the door opened wider and wider, revealing an old, slightly hunched man by the door and an old woman getting to her feet behind him. Perplexed, they looked at her. Questions filled their eyes, and the old man was just about to tell this young lady to find someone else to bother when the woman opened her mouth.

"Roland? Sadie?" The young woman inquired. "Unless I am mistaken, these are your names, correct? Val and Lacey told me your names, and where you live, and they said that I should meet you because you...you are...."

"Where....how....what on earth..." the older man sputtered.

"Xenia, you've come home!" Yelled the older woman, and she leaped towards to the door with an energy that surpassed her many years; her husband watched her, then followed her lead. Zeal, wonder, awe, and many years of pent-up tears came flowing out as the family was reunited.

via

The End

**linking up with Victoria**