Synkroniciti is delighted to welcome writer Julie Dron, currently based in Taiwan. “Take Me Back” is a poignant piece of flash fiction which follows a bus trip, an escape of sorts, for Li-Hua, a caregiver who takes a moment away to remember her past and consider her future. “It was good, this sensation, of being neither here nor there, not going back yet not arriving.” As she eats iced mango and watches a pair of schoolgirls, memories of her beloved Jin-Long flood her mind. Julie’s writing is tender and subtle, revealing layer by layer the reason for Li-Hua’s ride. No words are wasted and, even more compelling are the things Julie doesn’t tell us but we surmise. “Then, early this morning, Li-Hua clutching the cushion between her hands.” Anyone who has been a caregiver understands how overwhelming the experience can be and the doubt that can torture us. Am I doing the right thing, the kind thing? Julie manages to relate all of this and more in less than three hundred and fifty words. The effect is like a watercolor made with words–single strokes joining together to create the impression of memory and experience.
Read “Take Me Back” in our September 1st issue, “Broken,” available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Julie Dron is from Liverpool, U.K., and currently lives in Taiwan. A late starter at most things in life, she began writing fiction in her sixties and has been published in a variety of online magazines and anthologies, including: Syncopation Literary Journal; Wordrunner eChapbooks; The Wild Word; Flash Fiction Magazine; Amaranth; Blink Ink and Crowvus. Her work was short-listed with commendation for the Scottish Arts Trust Flash Fiction Awards 2022 and published in their anthology Beached.