Fiction, Short Stories

The Card

ryanhougardy / February 20, 2021
This post is part of Writer’s Digest February Flash Fiction Challenge.  Flash Fiction is a short, often under 1,000 words, style of writing.  I hope you enjoy my 28 contributions!
Day 20 Prompt: An Unopened Letter

“Bye Grandma… Bye Grandpa!” Haley hugged her grandparents tightly. “Thank you again for the gift – I really appreciate it.”

She shut the front door and walked back into the house with her mom. The living room was decorated with green and white streamers and balloons, and half eaten trays of food were growing cold on a folding table in the corner. A large banner that read “Congrats Grad!” hung atop the mantle of the fireplace, surrounded by pictures of Haley through the years.

Haley walked over to the couch and plopped down with a satisfied sigh, smiling as she flipped through the pictures on her phone of her and her friends in their cap and gowns from earlier that afternoon.

“Haley, there’s one more gift you haven’t opened yet,” Haley’s mom’s voice echoed lightly from behind her.

She spun around on the couch and looked at her mom, slightly confused but mostly excited.

Her mom smiled warmly and said, “Follow me.”

Together they walked into the small office beside the kitchen, the sound of their steps noticeably louder in the now empty house. Haley’s mom led her to a sturdy, locked cabinet at the back of the room and reached for a key hidden on top of a nearby shelf. The cabinet door groaned softly as it swung open, like it hadn’t been touched for a couple years. Haley’s mom reached in and produced a small green envelope with the words “High School Graduation” written on front. Haley took the envelope, the handwriting vaguely familiar, and looked up at her mom with slight trepidation.

“Go ahead, sweetheart, open it.”

Haley carefully tore along the top of the envelope and fished out the card which had a fading picture of dozens of mortarboards flying through the air. Her hands were shaking with anticipation as she flipped the card open:

“My Dearest Haley,

You did it! You’ve graduated high school! You should be so proud of yourself – I know your mother and I are. Tell me, did you get straight-A’s like you said you would? Did you make it onto varsity volleyball? My guess – you probably accomplished both. I wish, beyond everything in this world, that I could be there to celebrate with you today, but, unfortunately, I can’t. I’ll never forget the day you started high school. You were so excited, so ready, so ambitious. I love you, Haley. Know that I am with you. I live in your heart and am proud of you every single day. Stay focused, stay strong, stay beautiful, inside and out.

All My Love,

Dad”

With tears brimming in her eyes, she pulled the card close to her chest. She leaned towards her mom, who wrapped her arms around her, holding her tightly.

Her head on her mother’s shoulder, Haley glanced into the cabinet and noticed several more envelopes labeled with the same beautiful script: “College Graduation”, “Engagement”, “Wedding”, “Grandchild”….

Tagged ,

Related Posts

Ravenswood

October 20, 2021

Gravity Hill

March 30, 2021

“Can I See You in My Office?”

March 1, 2021

About ryanhougardy

View all posts by ryanhougardy →

50 thoughts on “The Card”

  2. obviously like your web site however you need to take a look at the spelling on quite a few of your posts.
    Many of them are rife with spelling problems and I find it very troublesome to
    inform the reality however I will certainly come back
    again.

    Here is my homepage … Follipur Ingredients

  4. I have been exploring for a little bit for any high quality articles or weblog posts in this sort of space .
    Exploring in Yahoo I at last stumbled upon this site. Reading this information So i’m
    satisfied to show that I’ve an incredibly just right uncanny feeling I came upon just what I needed.
    I so much no doubt will make sure to do not
    forget this site and give it a look on a relentless basis.

    Also visit my web site :: Essential Extract CBD

  5. I’m really enjoying the theme/design of your site.

    Do you ever run into any internet browser compatibility issues?
    A number of my blog visitors have complained about my blog not working correctly in Explorer but looks great in Opera.
    Do you have any tips to help fix this issue?

    Also visit my page – Vinyasa Anti Aging Cream

  15. I think that what you typed was very reasonable.
    However, what about this? what if you added a little information? I mean, I don’t wish to tell you how to run your website, however
    what if you added a headline that grabbed folk’s attention? I mean The Card
    – Ramblings is kinda vanilla. You might glance at Yahoo’s front page and watch how they create news headlines to grab viewers to open the links.
    You might add a video or a picture or two to get people excited about what you’ve written. In my
    opinion, it might make your website a little livelier.

    my blog Bio Ready Keto

  16. I happen to be commenting to make you be aware of what a fabulous encounter my friend’s child went through reading
    through your webblog. She figured out a lot of details, most notably what
    it is like to have an incredible teaching nature to let other individuals without hassle master specified tortuous subject
    areas. You actually exceeded our own expectations.
    Thank you for coming up with these interesting, safe, explanatory and also unique tips on that
    topic to Gloria.

    Feel free to visit my web site; clubriders.men

  18. I want to to thank you for this very good read!! I
    absolutely enjoyed every bit of it. I have got you bookmarked to look at new stuff you post…

    my webpage … Aileen

  19. I together with my buddies came viewing the nice helpful tips
    from your web page then then got a horrible
    suspicion I never thanked the web site owner
    for those strategies. The men were very interested to read through all of
    them and now have in fact been taking pleasure in them.
    Appreciate your really being simply kind
    and then for selecting this form of great useful guides millions of individuals are really wanting to understand about.
    Our own sincere apologies for not expressing gratitude to earlier.

    Feel free to surf to my page :: forum.m2clasic.ro

  20. Greetings I am so delighted I found your blog, I really found you by accident, while I was searching on Bing for something else,
    Regardless I am here now and would just like to
    say thanks a lot for a incredible post and a all round enjoyable blog (I also love the
    theme/design), I don?t have time to browse it all at the moment but I have book-marked it
    and also added your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be
    back to read a great deal more, Please do keep up the fantastic
    b.

    Check out my webpage :: perfect skin care

  21. Right here is the right webpage for anyone who wants to find out about this topic.
    You realize a whole lot its almost tough to argue with you (not that I
    really will need to?HaHa). You definitely put a new spin on a subject that has been discussed for many years.

    Wonderful stuff, just wonderful!

    Feel free to surf to my blog post :: firming skin

  23. I’ve been surfing online more than three hours today, yet I
    never found any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty worth
    enough for me. In my view, if all website owners and
    bloggers made good content as you did, the web will be a
    lot more useful than ever before.

    Feel free to surf to my web blog: hatched seeds require

  24. Oh my goodness! Incredible article dude! Thank you so much, However I am going through difficulties with your RSS.

    I don’t understand the reason why I cannot subscribe to it.
    Is there anybody else getting the same RSS problems? Anyone that knows the
    answer will you kindly respond? Thanx!!

    Here is my web-site – rapid weight loss

  25. Hi there! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any trouble with hackers?
    My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up
    losing many months of hard work due to no data backup.
    Do you have any methods to prevent hackers?

    Feel free to visit my page Justin

  26. I was just seeking this information for a while.
    After 6 hours of continuous Googleing, at last I got it in your site.

    I wonder what is the lack of Google strategy that do
    not rank this kind of informative web sites in top of the list.
    Normally the top sites are full of garbage.

    Here is my blog post growing indoors

  27. Great – I should certainly pronounce, impressed with your site.
    I had no trouble navigating through all tabs as well as related info
    ended up being truly easy to do to access. I recently
    found what I hoped for before you know it at all.

    Quite unusual. Is likely to appreciate it for those who add forums
    or anything, site theme . a tones way for
    your client how to go down on a woman communicate.
    Nice task.

  32. Wonderful goods from you, man. I’ve have in mind your stuff previous to and you’re simply extremely fantastic.
    I actually like what you’ve received here, certainly like what you are saying and the way during which you are saying it.

    You make it entertaining and you still care for to stay
    it sensible. I can’t wait to learn much more from you.
    This is actually a terrific site.

    my site – healthy eating plan

  37. I am only writing to let you understand what a remarkable experience our princess
    undergone visiting yuor web blog. She noticed too many pieces, not to mention what it’s like to have
    a great helping mindset to make many people without difficulty understand some problematic subject areas.

    You truly did more than our own expectations. Thank you for supplying these priceless, dependable, educational and also fun guidance on that topic to Evelyn.

    My website; http://www.forum.epsophoto.com

  41. Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your content seem to be running off the screen in Safari.
    I’m not sure if this is a formatting issue or something
    to do with internet browser compatibility but I figured
    I’d post to let you know. The layout look great though! Hope you
    get the problem fixed soon. Cheers

    Visit my web site – omega 3 rich foods

  45. Right here is the right web site for everyone who would
    like to find out about this topic. You realize so
    much its almost tough to argue with you (not that I really would want to?HaHa).
    You certainly put a brand new spin on a subject that has
    been written about for years. Great stuff, just wonderful!

    Feel free to surf to my homepage: low carb recipes

  46. I know this web page offers quality depending articles or reviews and additional material, is there any other web site which gives these stuff in quality?

  47. When some one searches for his necessary thing, thus he/she desires
    to be available that in detail, so that thing is maintained over here.

  49. This is a really good tip especially to those fresh to
    the blogosphere. Short but very precise info… Thanks for sharing this one.
    A must read article!

  50. It’s remarkable to go to see this website and reading
    the views of all friends regarding this piece
    of writing, while I am also eager of getting experience.

Comments are closed.