Free From – Chapter 18 – July 18th

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 18, 2021

Psalm 55:22, ‘So here’s what I’ve learned through it all: leave all your cares and anxieties at the feet of Jesus and measureless grace will strengthen you!’ (TPT)

Chapter 18

Legend didn’t know how long he had wandered. Annie pursued him for a while; his name on her lips sounding in his ears like a bad dream. A beautiful and perfect day, tourists, emotions lit like a ticking bomb, all of it made it easy to get lost in the tangles of life. When he finally could no longer hear the call of his name from Annie, he stopped running, leaned up against a lazy and weathered pier post, holding his aching side. An hour ago he was dreaming about where to take his wife to surprise her and now all he could think about was how out of shape he had become, how pathetic his life was. Numb, that’s how he felt.

He considered his options, leaning up against that pier. It had been beat with the winds of time, sandblasted by life, washed in the waters of a million storms. It was still standing, weathered, frayed, ragged, but solid and upright. That is why she had been so distant, never had any time for him, for them, really, anymore. Was he her extra shift she kept calling home about? The rafters of the pier held more secrets than a journal. Legend thought he spied a nest amongst the rocks just as a gull hovered nearby, protective. If the kids were here, they would have begged to see if there were eggs or babies hidden. Annie had known this man for a while; they kissed like it wasn’t a first time, like they KNEW one another. Legend thought he might be sick, something smelled fishy.

The waves were quiet today. No storm must be brewing; they lapped at the shore, lazy and indecisive. Legend swallowed, his mouth watering, trying not to puke. There was the heart scratched into the wooden pier about a buoy out. L<3sA 4EvR. It felt like yesterday, the water so cold had made them hiccup as they raced each other to the buoy. They had clung to each other, giggling, the water beating against the pier spraying foam in their faces. Annie was the one who had asked for the pocketknife he was never without. ‘A war will do that to you,’ he had told her when she asked why. He had pretended he was the beach police, threatening to arrest her for carving initials in a historical site. That man wasn’t better looking than he, was he? What did Annie see in him? Doubling over, Legend vomited, saliva swelling against his tongue.

That man was touching his wife. That man had touched his wife many times. He was familiar with where to touch her; that signifies practice. This wasn’t a one-and-done. Someone’s fishing line hung from a rusted square peg they used to build this pier with. It still held a fancy hook although the color had faded with time. He had faded with time. That’s why Annie tried out someone less threadbare and tattered. Legend gagged until nothing was left, his eyes roaming the beach, begging for solitude. His eyes caught the corrugated metal roof of the summer bar they passed some hours at long ago. No joke, ‘Riptide’. It was calling his name, whispering, ‘Legend. Legend. There’s still a seat with your name on it.’ The regulars had wood-burned their names into barstools and the bartop, a crude neighborly thing to offer the full-timers that the part-timers whined about. Legend had his name there. So did Annie. Did her new squeeze have his name there too? he thought while trying not to be sick again.

By the time Legend stumbled from ‘Riptide’, the sun had been long gone. The moon danced across the waters like a seductress, playing hide-n-seek with the whitecaps and clouds. He had drowned, all right, but not as he had initially intended. Drowned his sorrows, all right, not in the ocean, but in the familiar bottle of booze. Jack was a gentleman some say, although that wasn’t really what Legend was thinking about as he crashed face first in the sand right outside the bar door.

To Be Continued…