Dare to Begin Again - Weekly Dose of Fiction
Read on for end of last weeks Daily Dose of Fiction!
Last week in Daily Dose of Fiction we have explored what it means to begin again later in life. Not in spite of our age, but because of it.
📓 Daily Dose of Fiction – Dare to Begin Again (Day 4)
Skylar set her notebook on the kitchen table, staring at the stack of marked-up drafts beside it. Three novels sat on her bookshelf with her name on the spine, proof of a career that had taken her from dusty dig sites to university lecture halls.
Jim walked in with two mugs of tea, sliding one toward her. “You’ve done more than most,” he said, as if reading her thoughts.
She smiled faintly, picking up her phone. With a swipe, the photo appeared: Raven’s foal, legs splayed, eyes wide with newness. She turned the screen so Jim could see.
“He stood up within minutes,” she whispered. “No one told him he was too young, too weak. He just began.”
Jim studied the picture, then her face. “And you think you’re too old?”
The words sank deep. Enough felt like surrender. She thought of all the civilizations she had studied, people who had built, created, written until the very end.
Skylar closed her notebook, fingers brushing the worn leather. Was her purpose complete, or simply waiting for a new form?
She stepped out into the backyard, scooping up a handful of soil from the flower bed. The grains slipped between her fingers, gritty and insistent.
Not finished. Not yet.
She looked back at Jim through the open door. “What if there’s still another story?”
🐎 Daily Dose of Fiction – Dare to Begin Again (Day 5)
The morning sun slanted across Echo Canyon as Val swung awkwardly into the saddle. “I’m too old for this,” she muttered, tugging at the reins.
Raven laughed from her horse. “You’re not too old. You’re just new. There’s a difference.”
They set off at a slow walk, hooves crunching over gravel. The canyon walls rose around them, warm and steady. Val’s body protested with every sway of the saddle, but she kept going, cheeks flushed with effort.
At a rise overlooking the barn, Raven drew her horse to a stop. The silence of the canyon pressed in, broken only by the faint call of a hawk.
Val exhaled slowly. “I want to begin again, but I don’t even know where to start.”
Raven reached across, squeezing her hand. “Then you’re already closer than you think. Most people never admit they want more.”
Val looked down at her hands, knuckles white around the reins. A blank canvas, that was all she could see ahead. Terrifying, yet beautiful in its possibility.
Val looked down at her hands, knuckles white around the reins. A blank canvas, that was all she could see ahead. Terrifying, yet beautiful in its possibility.
She tucked her chin, whispering more to herself than to Raven. “I keep thinking I should fade into retirement. But something in me rebels.”
That line shifted the night.
Little did Val suspect that she was not the only one ready to rebel.
🤔 Daily Dose of Fiction – Dare to Begin Again (Day 6)
Riley knocked on Ben’s door, the desert dusk painting the sky in streaks of coral. He waved her inside, gesturing toward the two chairs angled toward his wide window. “You’ve been quiet,” he said, settling across from her.
She sighed, pulling her knees up and hugging them loosely. “I thought mentoring young architects would fill me. And it does, a little. But lately it feels like I’m circling instead of moving forward.”
Ben tilted his head. “So what do you want instead?”
“That’s the problem.” Riley’s throat tightened. “I don’t know. I want the thrill of creating again, but there’s something more I can’t quite touch. Like I’m missing a piece of myself.”
Ben’s eyes softened. “Maybe Quinn can help you sort it out. Want me to patch her in?”
Riley hesitated, then nodded. Moments later Quinn’s image shimmered into the room, her voice crisp through the feed. “You called me twice in one week. That’s a first.”
Riley smiled weakly. “I needed someone who knows me.”
Quinn studied her closely. “Then answer this. Are you done, or just afraid to begin again?”
The question hung heavy in the room, the kind that does not allow a quick reply.
Riley leaned back, heart pounding. For the first time in years, …
maybe ever…
she realized she did not have an answer.
It’s Not Too Late – Dare to Begin Again
A long week, but the friends come together to surround themselves with love.
You might have already read this story but I thought I’d include it here for those that missed it.
🎴 The five women sat on Riley’s veranda, the canyon glowing copper in the late sun. Glasses of wine clinked against the table, a scatter of olives and bread between them. Conversation drifted at first, books, travel, the heat, but it always circled back to the same question that had been haunting them all week.
“Why does it still sting?” Skylar asked, folding her hands. “We’ve achieved things, each of us. And yet, one trip to the hardware store and suddenly we’re underestimated, dismissed, invisible.”
Val shook her head. “That is exactly it. I’m still kinda new here, and I keep thinking maybe I should just fade quietly into retirement. But something in me rebels. I want more. I just do not know what.”
Raven leaned forward, her voice steady. “That foal I showed you? It wasn’t ready. But it stood. That’s the only secret. You don’t wait for permission. You decide to begin again.”
Riley’s laugh was soft, almost self-conscious. “Easy for you to say. Your training center is thriving. You’ve known this was your next chapter for years. The rest of us… we’re fumbling.”
“Fumbling is a start,” Quinn said from her screen, her hologram glowing faintly in the desert twilight. “When I retired, I thought travel would be enough. It isn’t. Turns out beginnings are messier than endings.”
They sat with that, each woman measuring the truth of it against her own restlessness.
Skylar pulled out her phone, the photo of the foal filling the screen. She turned it so they could all see. “Every time I look at him, I think about how civilizations I studied built and created until their last breath. Why should we be different?”
Riley traced the rim of her glass. “Because the world keeps telling us our time is up. That’s the message, isn’t it? Too late to try. Too late to matter.”
Val lifted her chin. “But what if it isn’t? What if that’s the lie we’ve swallowed for too long?”
The silence that followed was like the hush before a summer storm.
Finally Raven raised her glass. “Here’s to the next thing. Whatever it looks like.”
Glasses lifted. Even Quinn’s image, pixelated but present, mimicked the gesture.
The canyon walls seemed to echo it back, a low hum in the evening air.
They did not solve anything that night. No grand declarations, no perfect answers. But each woman left with a spark, faint but insistent. Val had called it rebellion. By the time the glasses were empty, they all recognized the same urge within themselves.
It’s not too late. It never was.
I hope you’re enjoying these stories. Please take a moment, click on the heart below, and write a comment if you are inclined. Not only do I appreciate hearing from you, but it helps others see the stories.
“Then answer this. Are you done, or just afraid to begin again?”, that resonates, great questions. Appreciate the insertion of real likely thoughts incorporated into the fiction.
Loved the subtle reference to 'invisibility' - another 'real likely' thought/situation! I enjoyed all the stories and marvel at your skill to draw the reader into the scene so quickly and (seemingly) effortlessly!