Status: Prompting Closed
This round is now closed to further prompts but remain open for fills and remixes (forever!).
About
"Enter any body of water and you give yourself up to be swallowed. Even the stones know that."
"beauty is terror"
"Would you fall in love with me again, if you knew all I've done? The things I can't undo. "
Calling all lovers of poetry and prose, rhyme and reason, screen and stage. Welcome to the Quotes Round, where every prompt must cradle a quotation (or two, or three). Mix the media and let the synergy birth a new order, or keep it short and let the subtext speak its secrets to the right writer.
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filial piety
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None
Prompt:
– Joshua Hong
– Ellen Bass, Any Common Desolation
[FILL] where do we seek?
His house changes with every year he spends away from it. There's a new piece of furniture here and there, and the trinkets on the top shelf keep changing, like the pieces are playing a game of hide and seek. Sometimes he gets scared things will change beyond his recognition one day.
From the dinner table, Jamie shakes her head while spreading the table runner, white with red hollies. "Of course you don't, Josh. I've only uncovered it last week."
"What do you mean, uncover?" he replies, sweeping his thumb over the dulled glass on the frame. The fine scratches on the surface feel like they're supposed to form a path heading somewhere.
Jamie huffs a bit while taking out two dinner plates. "It was in the warehouse." The clinking of steel cutlery over ceramic follows her. "I found it in the same box with your old toys."
Joshua trains his eyes over the fine details of the picture. The familiar doors of his family's church, slightly obscured by the bridal veil floating in the wind. Leaves falling around them. White roses, white ribbons, worn pavements. His mother's plain wedding dress, long-sleeved and wavy around the hem, which he finds quite adorable. How the groom looks like a deja vu; not quite a memory, but not unknown either.
"Why now?" he asks.
Jamie stops working. Joshua hears the faint rap of her fingernails against the quartz dining table, the one he bought for her birthday two years ago. Her friends have dined there more often than he has.
"I think it's okay for you to know about it," she replies. "It's been years, after all."
Joshua nods and puts the picture back where it was, next to the tissue box. There's something heavy in the air. It must be his mother's breath floating up and becoming rain.
***
Joshua holds his mother's hand for the final prayer of the night. Her hands are worn yet tender; his hands are soft by submission, trained and manicured into perfection that doesn't yield. His job demands that he give into everyone but himself.
Once upon a time, she was the one he gave to the most.
After the pastor gives out his blessings, the choir erupts into song. The entire church carols along. Suddenly everything looks more technicolor, as if the Christmas lights burnt a new light into their tired souls, a simulation of salvation.
Jamie looks younger than Joshua remembers. When he holds onto her, he remembers the car rides after school and the one-way flight that changed his life. Those days, his mother was his lifeline, and even with twelve others in his life now, she was still the lighthouse standing ahead of the rocky shores.
His friends never questioned where his father was, and so did he. The void it left at the left side of his stomach is easily patched. Sometimes, wind still passes through it, making his insides feel heavier. He has learned to ignore those symptoms.
"Merry Christmas, Mom." He pulls her into a hug. The energy around them is incandescent; like there's a thousand candles spreading hushed greetings for their savior's merry birth. "I'm finally home."
Jamie pats his back softly. It makes his eyes water.
"Merry Christmas too, Joshua." Then, she chuckles, "Your uncle's outside, by the way. Go greet him and we can head for dinner."
***
Parents are defined by what they ask and what they give. Jamie has always asked for too little and gave way too much. Every time she tells Joshua to take most of the meat on the grill, it feels like he'll never be able to pay back all his dues.
Watching her chat away with his uncle, Joshua wonders if he should ask about the wedding picture. He knows enough about his father to answer whenever people ask. She raised me alone, he once said on TV, which he had hoped would be telling enough. Everything else was a secret between the three of them.
Joshua, ever dutiful, pours more corn tea for his mother and his uncle.
The laugh that comes after ignites the filaments behind Joshua's eyes.
"Come on, Josh, you're supposed to be a guest. Go eat up. You know what, I'll get some soju for us."
His uncle pretends to freak out, "Oh no, better not," only to follow up with, "I say we get some wine to drink at home instead."
"You're crazy," Joshua says back. Red wine does sound good for the occasion.
When they drive out of the wine store, the route towards Joshua's houses is lined with colorful lights, blurring into beaded embroidery as the car speeds by. They look like the ones his mother used to sew in between her patient's appointments. Maybe he should ask her to teach him while he's still in town.
***
Joshua looks at the picture one more time before he goes to bed.
He wonders what happened after. Was the party big? Were their friends there to watch their first dance? Did he help her with her dress after the matrimony, or had her feet on his lap after a long day of wearing high heels? Did they plan to have him? Did they know how things were going to end?
The door behind him unlocks. Someone steps into the pantry.
"I didn't know it was that interesting to you," Jamie remarks, slightly distorted through the whir of the water dispenser. "I don't have his number anymore, but if you're that curious about him, I could always ask around."
Joshua ponders for a bit before shaking his head.
"It's fine," he answers. "It's always been the two of us anyway."
When he hugs her, he feels like he's five and being dropped at Sunday school. Twelve and being driven around after church. Seventeen and waving her goodbye at the airport. Still seventeen, questioning his decisions.
Then, he is thirty, changed in many ways, but still forever hers.
"If you're so sure," Jamie replies, but Joshua can somewhat tell she's relieved to not have to answer more. He learned to do that from watching her all these years. "Now go catch up on sleep while you can, okay?"
Joshua nods, kisses her cheek, and goes to have his best sleep in a while.
Re: [FILL] where do we seek?
Re: [FILL] where do we seek?
Re: [FILL] where do we seek?
Re: [FILL] where do we seek?
I didn't want to make too much assumptions about his IRL background and I figured perhaps some deliberate gaps would be more respectful; I'm glad it worked for you! I also wanted to give homage to Joshua's religious upbringing and the community aspect of church, as well as how he must feel growing as an adult away from his mother after years of having her as a sole parent.
Re: [FILL] where do we seek?
Re: [FILL] where do we seek?
Re: [FILL] where do we seek?
His job demands that he give into everyone but himself.
Wow… for a fic that focuses on his private more than public life, this single line hits crazy hard re: being an idol
Thank you for writing and sharing!!!
Re: [FILL] where do we seek?
!!! finally someone noticed it! Oh to be a performing in public 24/7 in a foreign country when you could just be an ordinary kid living behind your mother. Such is the consequences of our choices...
Thank you so much, Emma!
Re: [FILL] where do we seek?
oof
Re: [FILL] where do we seek?
that quote. wow. thank you for crushing me in return. thank you for naming what i wasn't aware of when writing this
re: the groom line - i liked it too so i'm glad someone picked it up!!