Small Gems – Melting Wax and Burning Feathers by Jennifer Cierra

“Never regret thy fall, O Icarus of the fearless flight
For the greatest tragedy of them all
Is never to feel the burning light.” – Oscar Wilde

Jennifer Cierra’s Melting Wax and Burning Feathers is a short, beautifully written story that I found myself wishing had gone on for much longer than it did, but only because I was so invested in what would become of the characters, not because I felt cheated by the story in any way.

This is a tale of dreamers and of dreams, of unfulfilled hopes and of desires not yet realized. It’s the story of Gregory Daniels, a man who’d at one time dreamt of reaching for the stars but came crashing back to earth when he lost his partner, Carl, to the lure of the needle from which false, fluid promises flow. Now Gregory is grounded in the reality of a job he hates, though it pays the bills, and he lives with a talent he’s buried in the past, knowing he could still fly but lacks the courage to take the risk.

It is the story of Paul Ashton, an aspiring young musician freshly arrived in the City of Angels, busking for odd change and dreaming of the day his music will send him soaring toward the sun. Paul catches Gregory’s ear with his raw talent and soulful sound, inspiring both admiration and jealousy of the newly minted possibilities, all those possibilities Gregory himself couldn’t realize.

Someone falls into your life by chance, stays for a short time, but in that time reminds you that it’s never too late to dream; then he flies away to follow his own dreams—it’s a lovely way for a man to come to terms with the fact that he’s sold out and it’s now time to grab hold of the life he’s meant to live.

Melting Wax and Burning Feathers may offer only a happy-for-now ending, but it was pretty easy to imagine that the future was going to be a place where Gregory and Paul would make some sweet music together for a long time to come.

Buy Melting Wax and Burning Feathers HERE.