Free From – Chapter 15 – July 15th

I hope you will join me this month as we JOURNEY each day through our short story. It is about finding FREEDOM in the midst of all the captivating pieces in life that steal our peace which we need FREE FROM!

FREE FROM
July 15, 2021

Psalm 106:15, ‘And He gave them their request, but He sent leanness into their soul.’ (NKJV)

Chapter 15

     Just as Breize arrived on a frigid, frozen morning, crashing into their lives like the swing of a pendulum, Blayze snuck in on the hottest day, breaking a fifty-four-year record. He didn’t make a peep, his beady little black eyes curiously roving all around the new world he found himself suddenly in. Everything about him was quiet and tiny and studious. It had been a picture-perfect pregnancy—no blood trails leading to the hospital or undependable vehicles; only the threat of a pending argument brewing at the last moment which amassed in several friends claiming rights to Breize in her parent’s absence stirred the too sultry air. They were all home before they knew it as if it never happened, except the mass in Annie’s midsection became the bundle in her arms.
     Breize loved her little brother instantly. She was like a little mommy, shushing him when he fussed which wasn’t often, toddling into the nursery for a spit-up rag or a diaper, singing little lullabies as he nursed to sleep. Annie and Legend joked that if they had any place where they desired to go out, they already had a live-in babysitter. Daily, on numerous occasions, one would find Breize wobbling from her parent’s closet. Her little fat feet would be stuffed into the toes of her mommy’s high heels, a nurse’s skirt scrunched around her belly, happily colored costume beads adorning her neck, a purse slung over one arm while she balanced a phone between her chin and shoulder and a baby doll expertly draped over the opposite shoulder. She’d be tut-tutting to whomever on the other end of her imaginary phone while rhythmically patting the bum of her baby. She was too much, providing the family entertainment, and once Blayze began chasing after his sister to keep up, there was never a dull moment. Days melted into weeks which transformed into months, and soon, before anyone realized it, years were molded.
     Annie enrolled Breize in gymnastics and Legend began coaching Little League baseball for Blayze and his buddies. Soon their house was the home where all the kids came to after games, the car other classmates dubbed to travel in to events, the family the neighbors invited to hang out, the people who others wanted to be around. Legend and Annie were the cool parents; they drove the FunMobile; threw the best parties. Somewhere along the way, going to church fell by the wayside, their church family became distant, and Legend and Annie grew awkward.
     Maybe it was then when it began that Legend and Annie started losing sight of one another, lost in crowds of entertaining, get-togethers, PTA meetings, sporting events. Perhaps it was another couple years later when Annie decided she needed more, and returned to work fulltime at the hospital, her regular shift of four-tens. The kids became fixtures at someone else’s table, someone else’s responsibility to teach and care for. It didn’t really matter when it happened, just that it did.
     Legend sadly realized outgrowing one another, or even growing in a different direction than the love of one’s life, can happen to anyone. Anyone can wake up one day to realize you had been removing yourself from the relationship just a couple moments a day. But suddenly looking back over time, you find yourself all but disappeared. They accumulated greatness, amassed an army of good friends, built a beautiful home, had everything anyone could hope for, but they had traded each other for the pursuit of other indulgences and more important occasions and sought relationships with others neither one knew of. And then it happened. The game-changer. Nothing would ever again be the same.

To Be Continued…