Reunification (Flash Fiction)

Amelia knew from the beginning that the boy wasn’t hers. His nose was
too pointed, his hair too thin; when he turned to the side he resembled
a cliff swallow who’d lost his muddy nest. When he cried, Amelia’s ears
rang. She could bring no comfort to his pointy shoulders, which shook
against her chest during his night terrors.

Until one week, his nocturnal screams had given way to the soft sobs of
a broken child. He hadn’t fought her as she held him, his tears sinking
into Amelia’s cotton nightgown as she ran a hand up and down, up and
down, up and down his back. The next night, Amelia’s embrace got him
to sleep in just a few minutes. And the night after that, he’d slept all
the way through.

The boy liked pancakes with grape jelly, Amelia learned, on the blue-
and-yellow plastic plate. He liked cowboy pajamas and the glow-in-the-
dark stars she’d painstakingly pasted on his ceiling just minutes before
he’d stepped through her doorway, his possessions stuffed into a
garbage bag at his feet. He liked these things, and soon, he loved them.

His laughter vibrated through the house like the satisfied lilt of a
starling, declaring his place in this tree. It tickled the inside of
Amelia’s ribcage and sent her into fits of tearful giggles. Bubble baths
made him laugh. She could make him laugh. Everything made him laugh.
She drank in the sound like it was sweet nectar.

On the last day, the same white car that had dropped him at her
doorstep months ago rolled into Amelia’s driveway. An officious woman
clutched the wheel with the same grip that Amelia found herself
clutching the boy’s hand. It was time for reunification, which Amelia
knew was the goal of the foster system. The boy was going back.

Amelia looked down and took in his features one last time. Soon he’d be
back with his flock, his delicate features matching those around him, in
the nest where he belonged. He was theirs.

But in those last seconds, as the car settled into a parked position and
he squeezed her hand back, Amelia’s heart swelled. He may not have
been hers, but in that moment, she knew she’d always be his.

Source: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/5-flash-fiction-examples-to-inspire-and-entertain.html