90 responses to “Another wedding”

1. That’s gruesome

   • Gruesome or sad… but at least the dress found a new user.

     • Oh perhaps I misunderstood. I thought the client’s daughter was dead

     • That’s good.. my intention was that seamstress daughter was dead, but I like your alternative as well.

2. This story made me shudder. You’re right – I do want to know more about it! You did a fantastic job.

   • Thank you.. maybe a vignette that tells you some.

3. Dear Björn,

   There’s a sad backstory here. That part came through.

   shalom,

   Rochelle

   • Thank you.. I think that’s what’s intriguing with flashes, to tell something else than what you really tell.

4. Myra Heart. So close to Mirror Heart. This tells me she feels deep empathy for her client.

   Being that “daughters” is plural, I think the mother has some sort of “curse” upon her; each time her daughter tries to get married, the girl dies. There could be any number of stories under here, and any number of weddings or almost-weddings. Then the dress could be for the mother or the daughter. The mom could have been getting married but had to cancel her plans when her daughter died, was killed, or committed suicide.

   What do you think happened?

5. It has a lovely other-worldly tone, but I am confused about what’s going on…

   • Ah… yes that was a bit hard, but I had my thought on the backstory I hint at, but maybe there are more than one possibility.

6. Love this, Bjorn.
   I read it that the heartbroken seamstress – ‘caressed the pristine silk’ – was selling her dead daughter’s refitted wedding dress.
   And that poor girl did not have much of a honeymoon!

   • Spot on – exactly the back story I wanted to tell

   • Yes, that’s what I thought as well.

   • Me too. It came across well.

   • Oh–this makes total sense! I see that now. My first thought was that the mother was outside with her dead daughter somehow–maybe the seamstres was preparing the dress for the girl to be buried in (very morbid, that reading…). What a sad moment–I definitely sympathize with this mother/seamstress.

     • Please try to pay attention, Emily, and no more chatting at the back of the classroom.

     • Ouch yes beware… read what might happen in Russel’s tale…

     • Haha! I will endeavor to behave better. Consider my knuckles rapped.

7. Yikes, what happened the last time? Scary story.

   • I think it might have been many things… even natural causes…

8. That must have been extremely hard for the mother, but keeping the dress may have been even harder. Beautiful and sad.

   • and at the end it meant food on the table.

9. I think a longer story would be good but not really needed here. The twist tells it all. Great weaving-

   • Thank you.. storytelling in short form can be rewarding but hard.

     • Yes I am starting to learn this. But still very new for me, anything longer than a poem

     • I have written one story of more than 4000 words… it’s called a short story.. 100 words is more like a poem really.

     • Yes I think I expressed that badly! That wasn’t what I meant but I should leave it before I get more tangled ^_^

10. Oh MY!! CHILLING twist 😉

    • Chilling and sad…

11. So sad and cruel because it just serves to remind her every time she has to make a dress 😦

    • I think she will remember every day of her life.

12. So sad! Did the seamstress kill her own daughter on her wedding day?

    • I don’t think so… I think it might have been an accident…

13. Ouch! This is so well told. I did need to read it twice to really get it but it was so well worth it. Spot on storytelling, Bjorn.

    • Thank you.. some of the best stories I have read tell another story by hinting… and that’s what I tried.

14. Such a terrible thing to endure…sad for her daughter, but strong enough to allow someone else’s daughter to enjoy her day! Excellent story.

    • Thank you… I think it was partly the nee to see a good dress come to use, and the need for money.

15. I like it when people are slightly confused. We’ve all been at FF long enough to think outside the box. Good one.

    • I think that too… and even if I had my own thought writing it, the backstory can be a lot of things.. it’s like finding constellations among the stars.

16. The first time I read it I thought the seamstress had made the girl’s wedding dress and it was being re-modeled for the mother to now bury that same daughter in it. Reading it a second time and I changed my mind. That’s the art of a good story, so many possibilities each time you read it 🙂

    • I think it’s good that a story can be interpreted in other ways than I intended… and yes I like that too… It can actually give ideas for another story too.

17. Heart wrenching. Great take on the prompt.

    • Thank you.. somehow I wanted the seamstress behind the machine

18. A difficult place to move on from.

    • Indeed.. very much different, but maybe a position you are forced into.

    • I don’t know if anything is wrong, but your comment section seems to be closed… Love the thought of making your living from your skills… the way family business grows.

      • Oh wow! Thanks for letting me know.
        🙂
        Corrected it now.

19. I saw Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, don’t know why.

    • How wonderful you say that, because I thought of Miss Havisham when writing it.. without her clinging to the wedding paraphernalia

20. Chilling and sad. How could she continue in her metier after that loss! Your flash fiction skills are fantastic.

    • Poetry teach me flash skills, and vise versa

21. Sad – I’m reading that Myra buried her daughter on her wedding day, and now every time she makes a wedding dress for someone else it all comes rushing back. Great piece!

    • I think that’s a clear option… it could have been selling her daughters wedding dress, or that she make them…somehow both are painful…

22. Hmm. Lovely atmosphere and intriguing story. Does the dress maker know the bride is going to die, has she laced the fabric with poison (or is my mind turning to too much gothic melodrama?) Is it her own daughters dress who died on her wedding day, remade for Ms Weber? Enigmatic stuff

    • Lots of possibilities here… or maybe just having lost her daughter to accident or illness once having to revisiting the memories or bury her daughter.

      • I like having to fill in some of the blanks myself. An intriguing write, Bjorn

23. It took a few readings, but I got it. And its true, a story with many possible interpretations makes for interesting reading. Well done.

    • Thank you.. and maybe it just needed to be longer to get make the ideas clear.

24. Great moments and bad memories lay side by side sometimes. Life can be cruel.

    • Indeed, sometimes it’s just darkest in bright sunlight

25. I read it twice and was still a little confused until I read through the comments. Very emotional.

    • Sorry about that, the balance between enigmatic and cryptic is difficult. Maybe the kind word is intriguing.

26. This story does open up so many possibilities where each reader can interpret their own meaning. But the despair and bleak conditions of her life come across very well.

    • Ha.. almost like finding the bear among the stars…

27. Wait. Whose wedding day?

    • Her daughter’s

28. Powerful images – especially ‘stomach laced with ice.’
    Enigmatic and intriguing is fine by me!

    • Ha… or it could be obscure as well… 🙂 thank you

29. I feel as though the dress in question had never been worn by Myra’s daughter, as intended, for the first wedding. A friend of a friend lost her son on his way to his wedding. The cruelest irony. I liked the unanswered question. It works.
    Tracey

    • This is the story that was playing in my head when I wrote it, but after seeing some comments I understood it could be alternative stories too… how tragic that it has actually happened… sometimes reality beats fiction.

30. “Your wedding-dress is ready”, Myra smiled, but her stomach felt like it was laced with ice. — wow. I love your wordplay here and I love that the piece leaves the reader wondering. Very clever.

    • Thank you… yes you know how it is, reading should trigger the mind…

      • Yes it should 😊 you’re welcome

31. I love how this lets my imagination write the prequel and the sequel!

    • It’s what I like too when reading stories… Thank you

32. Oh, this worked all right, Bjorn. No extra words needed. Blew me out of the water on this one! I like the phrase “laced with ice.” Interesting and unique.
    All in all, fantastic! You did a superb take on the prompt!

    • I love all the comments ranging from enigmatic to fantastic..

33. Lovely but sad tale well told Bjorn.

34. What happened to the daughter? Did the groom have something to do with it?

35. Oh man, my heart sank reading this. Parents should never have to bury their children, let alone on what was supposed to be a joyous day. The rain lashing sets this off perfectly. It reads almost like a prologue. I would like to know more about their story.

36. My take is that she is using the old dress as a “new” gown for the bride because it was never used. Very sad but a great storytelling, Bjorn.

37. My first thought was that she had robbed the grave of the previous owner of the dress! But on second thoughts, today’s bride knows it isn’t new, so maybe it was never worn and she simply had to alter it to fit. A bit macabre, but perhaps they were too poor for a new one? Thanks for joining my followers list, Bjorn!

38. That’s so sad. At least the mother didn’t make the gruesome decision to bury her in the wedding dress. Some brides probably wouldn’t want to wear a wedding dress of a girl who died so soon after the wedding. Good writing, though. 🙂 — Suzanne

39. Incredible story, Bjorn. I, too, thought it was about the seamstress in some way. I didn’t think of it exactly the way, ceayr, did but I was close. I liked the way it left the reader thinking after finishing. Super write !!!
    Isadora 😎

40. Intriguing story. Seems to me that Mrs Hart’s daughter died (suicide?) on her wedding day and she altered her daughter’s dress for Miss Weber. I would have been convinced of this but for the last line. Exactly how many daughters did she bury and how many weddings?

    And since you specifically wanted to know what readers made of it, i skipped reading the comments. But am off to read them now 🙂

41. I wasn’t expecting that at the end, for me, a really good finish to a good piece of flash fiction.

    • I read of your flash fiction interest in the interview… for me this has been a passion a long time. Friday Fictioneers is another great community.

42. the last sentence left me worried and confused

43. Really good post, like it !!

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