Here I am with three responses to the Carrot Ranch January 17, 2019, prompt: “In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that includes colonnades. It can be natural, architectural, or a metaphor. Take a stroll and go where the prompt leads.” Each response relies on previous stories and characters; The Three Sisters; Hope and her family from The Fold; and Ernest & Marge et al. I would have gotten here sooner but have been in the kitchen.
Journey’s End
Do you see those three balsam fir trees, those green colonnades holding up the sky, making a temple of the earth they stand on?
Do you wonder how they got there?
You might remember three sisters that took from an abandoned suitcase hope and their best dream to sustain them on their journey.
As the three sisters let go of fear and worry and idle wishing they grew strong, resilient, and wise.
You don’t have to believe they became trees. They’ll still hold up the sky, rejoicing as you walk the earth your own way, dreaming your own dream.
***
Temple Builders
He found them outside, each with shovels, each pink cheeked, strands of black hair stuck to damp foreheads. “What are you two up to?”
“Come see what Mommy and me made Daddy!”
Hope led him around the mound of plowed snow where the bank dropped away. Once he’d crawled through the entrance tunnel he could almost stand up.
“Is that a skylight?”
“No Daddy, just a vent. Mommy’s gonna build a fire and we’ll cook dinner.”
While his wife and child continued carving out their snug snow house he stacked snowballs and shaped two elegant colonnades at the entryway.
***
Supports
“It’s an epic occasion,” Lloyd announced as Ernest and Marge wedged themselves into the booth. “Gotta send Ilene off with a hearty breakfast.”
The diner that was in the same half dead shopping plaza as the community school served breakfast 24/7, perfect for commemorating Ilene’s first day of evening classes.
They walked her from the diner to the lackluster painted over storefront that veiled the higher learning within.
“Ok. Thanks. See you around campus.”
“Wait Ilene.” Ernest posed the others then had Ilene take a picture of them standing in front of the community school.
“We’re your colonnades.”
“Epic!”
***
ShiftnShake 
Wow! A response for three of your ongoing stories. I like that the sisters took hope from the suitcase in your first story, and that Hope is the main character in the second.
It’s reassuring that the three sisters became strong, resilient and wise and hold up the sky for us all to walk beneath.
It’s understanding of Daddy to find an alternative activity, building colonnades, to allow Hope and Mummy time and space to bond.
And what better way for Ernest to show his support, and that of their friends, for Ilene’s education.
There’s much to admire in any one of these stories.
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Thanks, Buddy. Admire from your side. It could be cause for alarm. It could be that I am being pursued and pestered by flashes past that had once seemed so stand alone innocent. Yikes.
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I likes them there flashes. Keep’em comin’. 🙂
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