Photo by Louella Lester
A father and three children are up there, waving, happy, though their faces are blurred by distance and low resolution. There’s no hint of a flood, or even a wildfire, though you wouldn’t likely climb up there in a wildfire situation, that would be dangerous and stupid, no that wouldn’t make sense. And they seem to be relaxed, at least for the camera that’s likely being held by a mother who could be directing the show. You can’t see how they got up there, but you know they must’ve climbed from the back of the house somehow, must’ve used a ladder, not a fancy metal one you would buy at the big store in a nearby town, but a ladder nailed together from small peeled tree trunks and short boards. One that someone like a mother might be fearful to climb. One that might have been selected for just that reason.
Louella Lester is a writer/photographer in Winnipeg, Canada, author of the CNF book Glass Bricks (At Bay Press 2021), contributing editor at New Flash Fiction Review, and is included in Best Microfiction 2024.
