A Gift for My Mother

The Keep Writing Challenge for today is to write a 90-word story using the prompt "listen."

A Gift for My Mother

I concentrate on holding eye contact as my Mother talks. I’ve heard this family story – in these very same words – at least twice today – hundreds of times in total.

“Do you remember that?” she asks, expectantly.

I will myself to feel her enthusiasm. “Oh yes, he was such a prankster!”

I squeeze out a chuckle, light my face, and follow my script, “And, what was it Grace said then?”

Fire ignites in eyes often dull with diminished interest in life. There are so few gifts I can still give my aging mother.

I listen.