Leaving Home

Written for https://fivedotoh.com/2022/08/01/fandangos-flash-fiction-challenge-179/

‘It only seems like yesterday we were taking the training wheels off your bike,’ Terry’s mum said.

Helping sort out the boxes, it was her way of staying close to her daughter. So grown up, it didn’t seem possible she was moving in with her boyfriend. She hadn’t even got the wedding to dampen the blow.

‘You let me go, and if I remember I took a tumble on the concrete, broke my arm,’ Terry said. ‘Mind you I got lots of signatures on my cast.’

‘You did, the house won’t be the same without you.’

Terry laughed, and her eyes moved towards a box, wrapped in colourful tape. She carefully lifted it down. The label on the front, written in yellow highlighter, said Terry’s Precious Items.

She picked up her cast, covered in signatures, a little doll, a diary, and two training wheels. ‘I might just take these to the flat.’

‘It still doesn’t feel quite right you’re going.’

‘Mum, I’m thirty-five, it’s about time you took off my training wheels.’