We Need Each Other in These Dreary Times: FFFC

Kaley stands waiting for the bus, listening to the roar of traffic as people in their warm cars pass by her without offering a ride on this cold and dreary day. It seems to her like all we do these days is wait alone, unable to see the need to help each other through this tedious journey called life.

We wait for everyone to buy into the need to protect each other and themselves with a mask, so that we can once again hug our families and friends. We wait for the President to concede that he has lost his crown. We wait for the political ads to go away, tired of hearing whose fault it is that the country is so divided and full of hate and misunderstandings.

Kaley wonders if it’s a figment of her imagination that there is a better way to live and love in this wonderful nation full of loving people? She remembers when neighbors knew each other by name for blocks, and children played together in the streets until parents called them in just before dark descended. Neighbors would come to each other’s rescue without being requested, to spare people the humiliation that asking for help could engender.

When she sees the bus, she sends up a prayer of thanks that it came tonight on time, for she is literally shivering. But, oh, to have had just one neighbor stop and offer a warm and comfortable ride home!

Fictional story for Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge #93. Fandango prompt is Roar. Ragtag prompt is Crown. Word of the Day prompt is Figment. Your Daily Prompt is Fault.