Flash Fiction Friday: “Et Ego in Arcadia Vixi”

After a bit of a hiatus, I’m trying to get back in the swing of things, so here’s a new Flash Fiction Friday entry. I managed to use all three wildcards (carpeting, umbrella, et ego in arcadia vixi) but I went over the 250-word limit by about 50 words. Oh well. Sometimes the story can’t be contained in such a small space. Even 300 words seem too few for this story, but I’ll let you all be the judge of that. Let me know what you think. I hope you enjoy.

———-

ET EGO IN ARCADIA VIXI

It’s a year before John’s death, though neither John nor I know this yet.

Something in the alley catches my eye as I pass. Crates and a tarp, fashioned into a crude shelter. Inside, a man sits on old shag carpeting, playing a violin. The music is beautiful.

I enter the alley. On the wall above the shelter is a sign. Hand painted. It says ET EGO IN ARCADIA VIXI. I wonder about this man, so different from the other indigents around town, and I take a chance, head down the alley and approach him.

#

I’ve invited John to share lunch. Over sandwiches, I ask him about the sign, what it means.

“I, too, once lived in Arcadia,” he told me. “I once had a life of luxury, like you. House, car, computer. I gave it up. You don’t know who you are until you have to struggle. Hardship and friendship. Those are the two most important things in life. With those ships, you can sail anywhere.”

#

I look around at the few other people gathered at John’s funeral: the Salvation Army chaplain and the pallbearers provided by the mortuary. I was John’s only friend in this town, and he had no family. I paid for this memorial.

The rain is coming to an end. The clouds are parting. A sunbeam illuminates John’s headstone. As the casket is lowered into the ground, I close my umbrella and leave.

Half an hour later, I’m home. I sit beneath the tarp, pick up the violin John taught me to play, and compose a song in his honor. It’s barely begun, but it has a title already. The same words that adorn both his gravestone and the sign above my new home: ET EGO IN ARCADIA VIXI.

———-

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

This story is copyright © 2009 Travis King and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.