My latest “100 Word Stories” microfiction. Inspired by

Title: The Way of the World

“Mama! No!” I cried.

But my mother didn’t respond. Looking away, she gazed towards the blazing inferno of a funeral pyre.

“Mama!”

Once again, she paid me no mind. After all, that was the funeral pyre of her husband, my father. As was custom, the widow of the dead man was to set herself ablaze upon the inferno.

It was the way of the world. No adult really questioned it.

But I was too young to understand. All I knew was that I lost my father, and I was about to lose my mother too.

She jumped into the fire.