Samuel Visits the Sea – Part 1
On a Saturday during the middle of Summer a young man decided to take a coastal path home in order to avoid his tormentors. He recalled having luck with back roads previously, and he felt that the added amount of time was a fair exchange for the cost of cheap analgesic. The path itself followed a line of high cliffs that overlooked the ocean, weaving between tangled patches of grass and underbrush.
The path began to ascend, and up ahead sat an old man slumped in a wheelchair. The young man looked around and, not spotting anyone else, called out to the aged figure.
“Hello,” he said. The old man did not look up. “Hello? Hello hello? You alive?”
“Yes,” came a somewhat muted, gravelly voice. Despite responding the old man did not move. His head was tilted back slightly, resting mostly on his left shoulder, and his gaze remained on the waters. His hair was matted and gray, twisted into a mass of stray strands by the winds. He had a thin white beard and deep lines under his eyes and above his brow.
“Are you OK?”
“Yes.”
“Someone leave you here?”
“This is my Saturday.” The old man’s mouth only slightly moved with his words, and his eyes did not waver.
“Can you move?” The sound of the waves crashing upon rocks far below the two filled the air for several moments.
“No, I can’t.”
“Then how’d you get here?”
“Back…back there is a small home for the broken and worthless. Twice each week someone brings me all the way here so I can spend some time close to the sea.”
“Were you a sailor or something?”
“No.”
“You just like the sea?”
“I can’t stand it. It smells and the wind never stops.”
“So why they bring you here?”
“Because they think I enjoy it and that it’ll do some good for me. They have these remedies for everyone at the home.”
“Sounds like they just want you out the way. You give them problems old man?”
“Ah they don’t mind me. Who are you anyway? Come over here where I can see you.”
“Name’s John. I don’t wanna walk out by the edge there. You?”
“Samuel Osborn.”
“Look Sam I gotta get home now. I have something important I have to do before tonight. When they gonna wheel you out here again?”
“Again? Probably Wednesday. That’s the usual.”
“All right, then. I kind of like this way home so maybe I’ll see you around.”
“If you come this way you will.” Samuel heard footsteps behind him trail off to the right. He took a deep breath and released it.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 11:37 pm and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.