The Spirit

Posted on by Reena Saxena

The remnants of a once-glorious life stare back at me – in amazement that I chose to return, or in tight-lipped resentment. I’m not sure if the place looks happy or sad. Sprouting greenery belies my assumption that the soul has disappeared. There is life, there’s a soul- but an alien one.

It is time for me to catch the flight. I turn back and then, freeze in my footsteps. There are musical notes wafting through the air – the same ones that she played decades ago.

I move ahead with heavy feet. The spirit is there, but doesn’t need me anymore.

48 thoughts on “The Spirit”

  4. I love this. There’s so much in there. The feelings of the narrator are beautifully told and so real. The sadness I see are not so much in people and things gone, but the fact that her spirit doesn’t need him any more.

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  11. This is a moving story. I like the way you juxtapose descriptions – amazement/resentment; happy/sad; turn back/freeze. From first to last, these act to emphasise your final sentence “The spirit is there, but doesn’t need me anymore.” Excellent technique!

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  13. Very mysterious and tender. I like “there’s life, there’s a soul–but an alien one.” Her departed spirit has transformed itself into inscrutable plantings. The use of “heavy feet” in the last paragraph is also laden with emotion.

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  16. I like that it’s really ambiguous whether it’s a sad or happy place. When writing emotional stuff like this it can be really tempting to try and hammer a certain feeling in, but our emotions are so much more complicated than just 100% one way or the other! I hope that makes sense!

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