June 2024 Flash Lit 1.2 - Orange

We spent the Christmas Eve that I was pregnant with T.R. at my mother-in-law’s house, like we always did.  The beginning of the end of my marriage was upon me, but I didn’t know it at the time.  All I knew was that I wanted oranges.

There was an orange tree in one corner of the yard, covered in the golden globes I coveted.  I must have eaten ten that day, craving the sweetness and the fresh smell and the juiciness of things.  They were perfect.

 

But no oranges since have been the same.  Maybe it was the hormones that made them so wonderful.  Maybe it was a Christmas miracle.  Maybe it was just before all the complicated trauma of divorce.

 

T’s favorite color is orange.