Sunday, August 2, 2009

Solstice

The sun rose. This was the day of the Winter Festival, the turning point of the year, when the night was longest. Soon the nights would retreat and the days grow longer instead. The revelry lasted well into the hours of darkness. At midnight came the climax of the festival. Afterward, they cleaned the stone block, staining the snow around it a washed-out red. The party continued with renewed fervor, as everyone fought to convince themselves everything was fine and would continue so. They waited for the sun, knowing the worst was past.

Morning came. The sun did not rise.

2 comments:

Jim Murdoch said...

Good punchline. Nice twist

Scattercat said...

It wasn't quite what I'd wanted when I had the brainwave, but it worked pretty well in its own direction. I still need to work with the original thought (that at the point of the solstice, the turn did not come and things just kept going, either towards light or darkness. This one's more of a morality play.)

I struggle with the limited ability to convey complicated concepts sometimes, but those are often the ones I mark to have full stories added to them later.