Don't Judge a Book

Image by stuart hampton from Pixabay

Miranda tsked as she took in the long-haired hippie in the flip flops with both arms covered in full tattoo sleeves. He said something to the head librarian, who began to sob. Miranda had half a mind to march over there and give him a piece of her mind. He had no business coming in here upsetting Cherie.

Deciding to make him leave, Miranda strode purposefully toward the pair then stopped, mouth full of unspoken words as Cherie wrapped her arms around the hippie and they held each other for a long moment. Now curious, Miranda watched as the young man reached down and picked up a painted guitar she hadn’t noticed leaning against the circulation desk. She followed the pair toward the children’s section where a large group of parents and middle schoolers sat expectantly.

“Thank you all for coming today,” Cherie said as the hippie settled himself beside her in a chair, bringing the guitar strap over his head and beginning to tune his instrument. “Julian and I promised his sister Karina we would hold this concert for her. For those who didn’t know her, she was also my niece. Karina lost her battle with cancer a few hours ago. We thought about canceling, but that’s not what she would have wanted.”

Julian’s fingers began to caress the strings of his guitar, bringing forth a beautiful melody Miranda had never heard before. As Cherie began to sing, Miranda realized it was an original song, written for Karina. For the second time that day, Julian had brought a woman to tears.

---

Thank you to Prompts 2 Go for the inspiration for this story. The prompt, “Roll Some Dice” required the rolling of a die three times. The number rolled each time determined one aspect of the story. I rolled as follows:

2 tattooed, long-haired guitarist
1 library
5 flip flops

I hope you enjoyed where I took the prompt. Please share and comment.

Also, here’s a link to the prompt in case you’d like to take a stab at writing your own story.

Roll Some Dice ~ Writing Prompt