Tsundoku*

‘You brought the books.’ He eyed her bulgy bag. His mind saw them in there. Tattier than when he first met her. Even their name, penguins, after some mythical beast, annoyed his prosaic soul.
When they were first assigned he had been shocked at her offhand stance. Wearing them away molecule by molecule. They wanted such costly precious rarities safe in The Vault.
‘It’s what they’re for.’ Turning a page.
Quick recovery. He’d been taught the correct romantic tone. ‘And bring no book, for this one day we’ll give to idleness.’ Woo her. Keep this Queen so rich, from such ancient bloodlines.
‘Love, now an universal birth.’ Ironic. She couldn’t see why the geneticists valued him.
She buttoned her travelling coat over her bulging stomach. A Queen’s firstborn belonged to Them. The next one would be hers.
But not his.
‘I’m taking the books.’

Today at dVerse https://dversepoets.com/2022/01/17/prosery-bring-no-book/ Ingid has set a Prosery. That’s a ‘prompt where we write prose based on some given lines of poetry. This can be flash-fiction or creative non-fiction, but it cannot exceed 144 words.’ Todays quote is from Lines Written at a small distance from my House by William Wordsworth.

The dVersers as always are inspirational. https://www.blenza.com/linkies/links.php?owner=dversepoets&postid=16Jan2022a&meme=13019

*Tsundoku is a Japanese word for the piles of books you have lying around the house waiting to be read.