He smelled her skirts of night jasmine. The rabbit knew she had gone back. The mushrooms on her breath and earth on her heels only confirmed his fears. Their therapist said these trips were no threat; it was natural to want to see one’s family. But he knew. He knew he was old, pompous, nervous, not worthy. She tried reassuring him, petting his ever-whitening fur, lightly kissing his whiskers. But she never invited him to her land, said he would not be understood. But he knew. He knew she was ashamed, and they would never climb the night jasmine together.

Heather Bourbeau’s

fiction and poetry have been published in 100 Word Story, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Cardiff Review, Cleaver, Eleven Eleven, Short Édition, and The Stockholm Review of Literature. Her work has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and has been featured in several anthologies, including Nothing Short Of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story (Outpost 19) and Respect: Poems About Detroit Music (Michigan State University Press). She is finishing a collection of one hundred 100-word stories entitled Tart Juice.

Author’s website: https://www.heatherbourbeau.com/

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ 100-Word Stories From Tart Juice

⚡ How to Talk to a Former Warlord, a poem by Heather Bourbeau in The Missing Slate (18 March 2015)