Flash Fiction – Custody Arrangement

Soleil wiped the last remnants of sleep from her eyes as she sat up. She would see her daughter soon, which always filled her with joy. It was strange how much she missed the child when they were separated.

Zemyna had spent the night with her father again. As much as Soleil hated the cheating bastard, she had to admit Menulis was a good father. He never complained about watching their child. In fact, judging by the ugly and long custody battle, he actually wanted to take care of her.

In her more honest moments, Soleil admitted she dragged out the battle too long out of anger and bitterness. The rest of the time she lied to herself, saying she only did what was best for her kid.

It no longer mattered. She and her ex-husband had finally agreed to a plan, and they stuck to it, with only rare alterations. A few times a year they each intruded on the other’s time for several hours on special occasions, but so far, they were both tolerant of these interruptions. It was good both of them wanted to spend as much time with Zemyna as possible.

Soleil put a halt to her ruminations and got out of bed and dressed for the day. As always, it would be a beautiful one. At least from her perspective. The silly humans didn’t always agree, but they were only an afterthought.

Time for work. She went to the sunroom and placed her hands on both sides of the blazing ball, then lifted it slowly. For the rest of the day she moved her burden through the sky, lighting her daughter, the earth.

Her ex kept the moon out for as long as he could, somehow knowing exactly how long she would tolerate his presence, before disappearing. Greedy fool, she thought. Oh well, at least she would have most of the day to gaze down upon her greatest creation, and admittedly, her favorite child.

Her mood boosted, Soleil, Goddess of the sun, decided she might even answer a few prayers.

 

*Rough draft 345 words.

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This idea for this story came from a picture prompt (not the picture I used today) in my writing group. We take turns picking a prompt then whoever wants to write a story using it can do so. The picture showed a woman with her hands raised above her head forming a globe of bright light. I’m pretty sure it was a representation of healing magic but my mind saw it as a goddess holding the sun.

I don’t know how I feel about the actual story, but I’m particularly proud of myself for writing this.

I jotted down ideas last Sunday and a couple of times during the week I tried to work on it, but the magic didn’t happen. I did some research on solar goddesses and came across Balkan mythology. I got so into reading about it that I wasn’t writing, except the notes. However, I knew I was going to use what I found.

Then the pain started. I had a root canal on Tuesday. Wednesday afternoon I was sore, and by that evening I was miserable.

The dentist fit me in Thursday morning and told me everything was so inflamed it pushed the tooth up (eruption). What does that mean you ask? It means the pain I felt was exactly the same as the abscess I had before the root canal. He proceeded to drill on two of my teeth to fix it a bit because every time I bit down, or talked, or sang along to a song in my car it would hurt so much I almost cried out (which is a rarity for me).

So the bite problem is mostly fixed but now there is pain all over. The dentist told me there would be and gave me mega ibuprofen. I haven’t slept in days and as a result, I’m pretty out of it.

Still, I sat down at the computer and wrote this story Friday evening. It took forever because I was alternating between holding an ice pack to my face while I thought out what I wanted to say, then typing it all up. I can hardly believe my muse was willing to play! Of course, afterward, I had to lay down and was about as miserable as possible.

If I have some good moments today I’ll write another short story I have notes for and post it tomorrow or Monday. Until then, I’m going to go back to feeling sorry for myself.