153 Drabble: De(a)dlock

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Title De(a)dlock
Author Brutti ma Buoni
Rating PG
Word Count 100
Prompt 153 (Bleak House, by Charles Dickens)
Characters/Pairing (if any) Joyce
A/N There is a point to the tricksy punctuation in the title: it's a reference to leading characters in Bleak House, the Dedlock family.


It is silent.

This house is too big for one.

No music plays. The phone doesn’t ring. The TV is all yours, if only you wanted it.

Only your own laundry needs washing. None of it is stained with mud, blood, grass or ash.

No one knocks at the door with unconvincing stories you should have seen through earlier.

There are no boyfriends lurking, false tutors or alleged singers in bands that never played a note.

Your daughter is gone. You drove her away. You may never see her again.

This house reminds you that the silence is your fault.

Comments

[gillo]

That is heartbreaking - and the link to BH makes it resonate even more. Fortunately, Joyce got her daughter back.

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

I think this is my first ever second-person fic. Glad it did the job (and that we know it's not the end of their relationship).

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

Poor Joyce. All she can see are the things that aren't. An empty nest is bad enough, but under these circumstances it's torture. *sniff*

Great job.

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Thank you! At least we know Buffy came back and things improved. *comforts*

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

nice but sad...is this set after 'Becoming'?

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Yes, it's after Becoming, when Joyce was very isolated for the summer (and before she started joining groups and meeting people like Pat).

[bobthemole.livejournal.com]

Excellent atmosphere - very solemn and still. The idea of Lady Dedlock comes through.

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Listening for things which are not there is the feeling I wanted to capture with this.

[deird1]

This is great!

[brunettepet.livejournal.com]

You Beautifully capture the sad, silent vacuum Buffy's left in her wake and the guilt Joyce feels for causing it.

I loved this line: There are no boyfriends lurking, false tutors or alleged singers in bands that never played a note. I loved the rhythm of the line, and it seems Joyce mistakenly casts Spike as one of Buffy's boyfriends. That made me smile in this melancholy piece.

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I imagine Joyce must have been terribly confused as well as distressed at this point; going over everything trying to work out where the Slaying issues had come in. And Lovers Walk tells us she didn't quite get the Spike-is-evil thing...

[mierke.livejournal.com]

Very painful. Wow.