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Flight of the Jailbird
It couldn’t get any worse then this.
Well, technically it could, but right now he just wanted to keep his mind focused on the task in hand, which slowly seemed to be slipping out of control, like sand through his fingertips. The past few years only helped to prove that the more he tried to take control of these things, the more likely there were to send him tumbling through the dark abyss that was his life recently. Still, he plodded on like a horse carrying a cart, and yet each step forward felt like two steps backwards.
As he gazed up at the stars, tears slowly but unintentionally leaking from his eyes, he wondered how it had come down to this. Shivers rolled through his body like an earthquake shaking the face of the Earth, yet the cold could not be felt as his body slowly became numb. The rain fell like tears from heaven, mixing with his own, and he could only wish that there was an angel up there, looking over him and protecting all the things he loved. He wanted to rely on that, instead of having the pressure of knowing that he would have to be a man today, instead of the boy everybody saw him as. The hard ground beneath him made it impossible for him to be comfortable, urging him to move on, go forth and do what his heart needed him to do. If only it were that easy.
He was weak. The wet dirt clung to his clothes, inviting him to just lay there and accept the fate he tried so hard to fight. It embraced him and in a way, he loved it. He loved how he didn’t have to fight for anything there on the ground and could just watch as the clouds in the night swept by, each one individual and just as important as the next.
Panic made his heart thump. That was probably his greatest enemy at the present. He started to feel the effects of the blood loss and could only imagine the state his clothes would be in when…if he came out of this. Trust him to be vain at a time like this.
And as the cold swept through him in a final wave and his eyes glazed over, he could only think of the one thing that did this to him, the enemy that forced this upon him and yet was the one thing he loved most in the world, was the thing that kept his heart pumping, kept his fist clenched ready for the fight, kept the courage in him despite the fact they thought of his bravery as non-existent…his family. And with that thought locked in his mind, he smiled and thought no longer, with his eyelids shielding his aching soul from the reality…
4 months earlier…
“Tom! Time for school!”
The patter of tiny feet alerted Steph to the presence of the last thread that remained of Max.
“Steph…”
She knew that tone anywhere, the way it ended as though her name were a question. It meant only one thing. The puppy-dog eyes would follow next.
“What is it Tom?”
And there they were, shining bright at her and crumbling her resolve like the way her home made cookies crumbled, all so easily.
“Can we get some chocolate from Drive ’n’ Buy?”
It’s funny how your life can be turned around in one day. For Steph, that day was the day she got married. One minute, you’re sipping bubbly champagne and sighing at the thought of the shared road ahead, next you’re sitting on a cold plastic chair shedding at the silver halo around your finger. It meant so much to her that it was expensive; it was only now that its true value was revealed to her. Who thought that something so small, could make her heart feel so big and full of love. She lost the only person she ever loved that day, torn from her by metal seeping with the rage and hatred of a vile heart.
In the span of a single breath, she lost her lover, but gained a son. She had that hope to hold on to, and was grateful that the small innocent boy stood in front of her was her single rock, a boulder so strong with support; she would care for Tom like Max would have wanted her to.
“Of course! I’ll grab your lunch, and you go put your shoes on,” she smiled down at him, ruffling his hair as he went by.
TBC…
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