Echoes of an unsent letter

 

Experimental Short Story Series #16
Title: Echoes of an Unsent Letter
Theme: Fragmented memory, longing, and the unreliability of written words
Blog: farazparvez1.blogspot.com

Echoes of an Unsent Letter
A Disjointed Narrative of Love, Loss, and Language

“You wrote this.”
“No. I never did.”
“But it’s in your handwriting.”
“Then it must be lying.”

I

The paper was brittle, as if aged by sorrow. The ink had bled through time. No date. No address. No signature. Just a beginning — “I remember the sound of your laughter echoing through my ribs like borrowed breath.”

He didn’t remember writing it. He didn’t remember her. But the words pulled at something buried — not in memory, but in muscle.

II

He read it in fragments. A letter unmoored from time.
Each line a cut.
Each sentence, a salve.

“I kept your photograph in the kitchen drawer. Not to remember your face, but your absence.”

“I wanted to burn this letter. I wanted to forget you. But forgetting is the second betrayal.”

III

Sometimes, he thought he was the author.
Sometimes, he feared he was the recipient.
Mostly, he suspected he was both.

IV

There was a paragraph that had no verbs. Just images, floating:

“Your green scarf. The corner table. Rain between our tea cups. Your fingers twitching like the wind had nerves.”

He knew that scarf.
He hated rain.
He didn’t drink tea.

V

When he asked his therapist, she said,

“Perhaps you’re remembering a story someone else told you.”

He wanted to believe that.
But the handwriting matched.
So did the ache.

VI

One line kept coming back:

“Even if you never read this, I had to write it. Because silence screams louder when dressed in ink.”

He placed the letter on his desk, beside the torn photo he’d found in his wallet.
A woman. Only her eye visible. Half a smile.
Was it her?
Was she ever real?
Was he?

VII

One day, he wrote a reply.
He never mailed it.
He never finished it.
He folded it into the first letter and locked it away.

Later that night, the wind howled against his window like a woman laughing.

Blog Note from  Faraz Parvez

Welcome back, dear readers, to our signature series of 60 Experimental Short Stories. Today’s entry—Echoes of an Unsent Letter—dives into the blurred edges of memory and language, inviting you to consider the unstable nature of truth and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.

Our blog, farazparvez1.blogspot.com, continues to bring you bold, genre-defying fiction crafted to intrigue, inspire, and ignite the imagination. With each story, we explore the limitless potential of experimental narrative, pushing boundaries and breaking molds.

Stay with us as we count upward to 60—each story a unique journey into the undiscovered possibilities of short fiction. And remember, these stories are just a prelude. A curated eBook and print collection is coming soon for our loyal readers worldwide.

Subscribe, share, and spread the word—because storytelling, at its finest, begins here.

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