I came back from Patos on the 4th and I am headed back out there on the 11th. I wanted to share some of the amazing photos that I took while I was out there, along with the first installment of the story I was writing while I was out there, it is a relatively short story, but a tragic one. tell me what you think.
The story begins here:
“I am going to Shaking Rock” she said with her back turned to him. “I don’t expect you to follow and I don’t know what I will find.” He sat there staring through the rain streaked window pane, his fingers running back and forth across the brass brads on the underside of the chairs arm.
“I expect to write, but don’t count on it” her words drifted to him across the room. Merely ghostly words with little meaning passed through him like the breaks of sunlight on the edges of the clouds. “Should I take the black chiffon?”
“Sure” he mumbles, as the ice cubes in his bourbon appeared as ships in the fog. His mind was drifting back to the time spent on the island, a time of peace and quiet and hard work. he never expected to be here, now, childless and without focus. He wanted to go back to the lighthouse, to gaze once again upon the shapeless horizon full of possibility. Somewhere in the distance lurked a monster, rearing its head as it smashed its waves at the steps of the house. Kept at bay when the sky was bright and the breeze was light.
“Darling will you call for a car to pick me up in the morning” she said, her voice a whisper in the ether.
“Sure Sweetheart”
The rain on the window brought back memories of the monster knocking at the door. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, “goodnight, I love you” she said. He mumbled a barely passable “and I you”. She sat there with her hands on the arm rests and gazed at his profile. She knew deep inside that he was lost, and the apparent indifference towards her affection was because he was too involved with his own internal demons. She aslo knew that this stalemate in their marriage had made her question her love and affection for him. With one last sigh and a parting pat on his knee, she exited the room. He had barely noticed her leave but he listened intently as she climbed the stairs for the bedroom. Each footstep was like a cro-bar prying open the lid of his dreams, each creak brought back the faint memory of the sound of that one cedar split in half dancing with the douglas fir with the broken limbes. A cacophony of sounds flooded over him as he allowed himself to drift back in time.
There he was on the banks of Rosario Strait watching as the tide ripped past in a series of whirlpools and boiling water. he heard someone yelling ‘papa’ on the edges of the wind and he turned to see his wife folding the laundry off the line, and his two children running towards him. Their mother was yelling something about slowing down, but her words were lost on the children. He opened his arms and scooped his daughter into the air, giving her a big hug as she threw her arms around his neck.
“Dad guess what we found” his son said, brandishing an object wrapped in a handkerchief. The gleam in his childs’ eyes told him that whatever treasure lay within those blue checkered folds was the greatest find of his sons life. Gingerly he reached down and picked up the object, carefully unwrapping it. It felt light and fragile in his hands, and he was not surprised to find an egg tucked into the folds of the handkerchief. It was a blue egg, about the size of a chickens, with a curious mottling of brownish spots.
“Children come look closely, do you know what this is?”
“An egg!” they both chimed in together.
“But what kind of egg is it?” he asked.
“A special one” his daughter said.
“Why yes, this is a special one, it’s an Oyster Catchers egg, and it’s still warm, so you better rush back and put it back in its nest before the parents find it missing.” he said as he wrapped up the precious cargo and returned it to his sons open hands. He watched as his children ran off to the beach. This was paradise, and his wife looked like a queen. He walked up to where she was standing, swooped her up in his arms, and took her inside intent upon showing his gratitude for this magnificent woman.
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