still standing

Her mother fussed over while Shino prepared to leave for school that morning.

Eat your breakfast. What’s wrong with your hair.

Shino just ignored until mother pointed out the socks she was wearing,

Those are not for school!

“Leave me be!” Shino barked at her mother.
Shino never looked at her or said a word as she left the house, joining her friends to school.

Shino’s school was on top of the hill and survived the earthquake and tsunami. The whole town at the bottom of the hill disappeared in a matter of hours, walls of water sweeping and gulping everything and everyone, followed by a large fire.

Shino finally reunited with her father days later. It took weeks to find out that Shino’s mother and younger brother had died.

Shino graduated from high school in the town next to her hometown and went on to a university in Tokyo. Shino still cries and wishes she could apologize for her attitude towards her mother that morning, though she starts to see the positives that have come out of that day. After all, she wouldn’t have the motivation to become a doctor to help others and to make her mother proud.

photo prompt © Jules Paige

Phew… 200 words! For Sunday Photo Fiction – March 26th 2017