Geese Among the Trees | SkyLightRain

There’s something magical about catching a ‘behind-the-scenes’ glimpse into stories, music and theatrical productions. It’s part of the reason why I launched this series of posts offering insights into the inspiration behind the flash fiction and short stories that make up my Valley Press collection Sky Light Rain.

The twenty-third story is ‘Geese Among the Trees’. Just a few times in my life I’ve seen geese grazing – it always seems to me to be something uncanny and incongruous. I wanted to harness that feeling while exploring the challenge of being someone who’s been hurt too many times to give into wonder, and offset this against a person who actively seeks opportunities to be amazed. Can the cynic and the innocent ever find a happy ending together?

This story was written for the lovely folks at Liars’ League Hong Kong for their literary night of performances in December a few years back. I wanted to write something that wasn’t Christmassy, but captured some of the sense of childlike awe the season can evoke in those that way inclined.

Susan Lavender performed my short story as part of the special showcase.

The story begins:

I see it from the train each day, nestled between the fields and the canal. If I’m travelling at dusk or the day is overcast and stormy, the windows glint against the stone walls. I can imagine you then, moving about in there, doing whatever it is that you do without me. Or perhaps you’re resting your elbows against a window ledge looking out, wearing a worn-thin, oversized jumper, watching the train zipping by like something fleeing through the landscape, headed god knows where – who cares where, as long as it’s away?

Away from the house we shared – the one and a half rooms downstairs, two and a half up, if you counted the loft where the bats lodged and paid rent in foul-smelling droppings.

“Guano,” you told me, and scooped it up to fertilise the garden, transforming it into carrots and lettuces – a kind of alchemy. I never could eat them without feeling squeamish, although I knew they’d been scrubbed clean.

Country living, it’s not for everyone.

Sky Light Rain is published by Valley Press and is available to purchase here.

Discover the inspiration behind my other Sky Light Rain stories by clicking on the story titles below.

If you’d like to request a review copy of Sky Light Rain or interview me about my writing, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

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Sky Light Rain – Geese Among the Trees