The House Along the Road
written by: P.A. O’Neil
While backpacking my way through Europe, I came across the remnants of a farmstead near the border region between Belgium and Germany.
It saddened me to think of the loss of love and laughter, of productivity and growth. There once had been a family here, a child’s broken toy lay among the wreckage of the farm equipment.
Birds in the trees provided the only sound as I approached the stone structure that once housed the family. Just as my hand reached for latch on the stout wooden door, a torn curtain flapped out through a window left open. It stopped me in my tracks. Could this have been a warning not to enter, or an invitation to “come on in”?
Maybe that day was not the day for me to pay my respects to the memories within this stone cottage? I stepped back and smiled. “Blessings and good will, to those who once lived here,” I shouted, before I turned back towards the road and onto the next part of my journey.
OCTOBER 2025 AUTHOR OF THE MONTH at Spillwords.com
P.A. O’Neil has been writing professionally for nine years. Her stories and essays have been featured in over fifty anthologies, journals and magazines from several continents. She will be releasing her third book, In for a Penny, in late October 2025. Her work has twice won the “Story of the Month” award on the Spillwords.com website. Ms. O’Neil believes, if 40 is the new 30, and 70 the new 50, she is starting middle age all over again. Her roots are in the American Southwest, but she and her husband lovingly reside in Washington State. She is a member of several Facebook Groups. She is also a member of the John H. Watson Society, and the Sound of the Baskervilles. Her collections, Witness Testimony and Other Tales, as well as Two Sides of the Same Coin: In-between stories of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, are available from Amazon. She was the winner of the Saddlebag Dispatches Magazine 2023 Mustang Flash Fiction Award with her story, “The Great Burro Revolt,” which was also featured in their anthology, West of Dodge. Her article, “Northwest Passage” was a medal finalist for a 2023 Will Rogers Medallion Award. Her Amazon author page - P.A. O’Neil.
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