short fiction · 2026-10-19

The Weight of Waiting

Written in free time, from: Creative writing

She checks the mailbox every morning at exactly ten, though she knows it's foolish. The postman comes at eleven, but hope arrives earlier, dressed in the guise of routine. Each day, the box yawns empty, its darkness swallowing the anticipation she brings. She imagines the letter lost in some bureaucratic limbo, or perhaps never written at all. Still, she returns, her fingers brushing the cold metal, searching for a thickness that never comes. The absence becomes a presence, a hollow where words should live.