The Shortest Stories Ever Told.

Stand up, and go to the graveyards, anyone will do. There you will find on the stone engravings, the shortest stories ever told. They were written by life, and published by death. One reads, “ Here lies John Underwood, a patriot, husband, and father.” Had he died in war? maybe his wife cried all night and maybe his child grew up without a father. Move on to the next one “Here lies…” Her name is barely readable and only the keenest eye can see it. It might tell a story of someone from long ago, Her last name is foreign, she came to America, hoping to reap from a land of promise and dreams. But maybe it wasn’t so. Maybe instead she was treated like a fool, and she worked for every cent. The gravestone doesn’t look very fancy Perhaps she worked up to the day she died; To provide for a family that didn’t even have enough to give her a well deserved burial. On to the next one, The longest shortest stories of all, nameless graves. Graves of people no one knew. People who had no family, who were just found and buried out of respect for the dead, but nothing more. Graves of people who lived and died wandering the earth. They had no true rest till they were buried in the ground and a stone was placed over their heads, no one would remember them, but it didn’t matter. Their weariness and suffering was over. “Here lies Ruby Rivers, May 8th, 2011 - May 9th, 2011 Only a day, and she was gone. her life must have slipped away during the night, despite the best efforts of the doctors. No other story in the graveyard seemed as sorrowful and heartbreaking as this one. I bend over and place a flower at the grave, its pedals already falling away. Visit the graveyards, they offer a library of the shortest stories ever told.