Prompt: 5. Outsides

As she watches the sunrise over the millstream, her feet in the coolness of the fast running water- Lillia flexes her sore ankle, digging her bare toes into the silt. She is watching for the arrival of more than just the sun. It has taken a while, since Granny Lil is a bit hard to fathom- she knows at least a dozen languages and tends to combine them at random as she speaks- but Lillia has put together what Granny Lil was trying to tell her for the last few weeks. Lillia’s father is still here. He stands just outside- always outside. She looks across to the stream’s far shore and there he is- just standing on the wrong side of the stream, not coming over to the side that belongs to the family, not coming in. They stop there and watch each other for a long moment as the sky brightens.

Word Count: 152

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