@tryskele,

The story started off as a cheap gag. But as I got into it, it started getting ... poignant. I had to stop because I was getting choked up.

Longhorn had studied poetry in college but the quote was completely unfamiliar. One of the Victorian poets, perhaps. “That was … beautiful.”

The patient looked up at her and whispered, “Quill Fire.”

“Yes. Yes, that’s exactly what it was. The fire of a quill. Who wrote it?” Longhorn inquired.

The patient stopped rocking. His shoulders subtly slumped forward while his eyes dropped to the ground. And then she noticed it: a solitary tear slowly making its way down his cheek. “You wrote it,” Longhorn whispered.

Almost imperceptibly, the patient nodded.

:-)

Quill