Lisa Barker

(100 word challenge)

“We believe that people stick together when they make a commitment.”

He curled his upper lip. When did Mom jump on that bandwagon? After Dad died?

“We’re not breaking up. We’re taking a break.”

“Sounds like a break up to me, Joe, and you know what the Church says about divorce!”

Living with a born again mother is hell. “We still love each other and we’re seeing a counselor…and how did we get started on this anyway? It’s absolutely none of your business.”

She softened. “I know all about heartbreak, Joe.”

He was having none of it.

(Yes, this is Joe Taylor from Inheritance with his mother.)

(100 word challenge)

He wakes and softly chuckles at the sight of her: hair in disarray, baggy eyes, mouth agape and drool because her teeth are in a glass on the bathroom counter. This is the woman he married 35 years ago.

They’d lived together longer than they’d lived at home with their parents and siblings. Almost a lifetime together. There were more years to come.

He paused. They’d separated once. Had grown apart in the early days of raising a family. How did they fall away from each other, how did they come back together?

It didn’t matter. He vowed to stay.

(100 word challenge)

Worn boots on a weathered table under a canopy of oak. Hot coffee. Angie joined him on the terrace.

There was nothing to say. The weight of it all dampened the sun’s warmth.

“You shouldn’t have called him.”

“It’s time to start fresh, Hal.”

“He doesn’t know me. I don’t know me.” He looked pained.

“I know you.” She squeezed his shoulder. “You are the man that showed me with your love and patience how wonderful life can be. You’ll be a great father.

She sat beside him. He kissed her hand.

“Maybe,” he said.

(100 word challenge)

Calypso. She dances in the salty wind, the sea swells beneath her feet. I fell in love with Calypso, the mistress of my soul. Yet darkness hid within her.

She threw the wine glass at the hearth and it shattered. I watched as if it would magically dissolve into the black slate. “He raped me when I was ten,” she said.

I took her hand. “I will never hurt you.”

“You already have. Only a fool makes that promise.”

“Then, I will hurt with you.”

Reduced to a slow-rolling wave, she gently broke upon me. “I believe you.”

(100 word challenge)

It was a well-traveled road with detours that tested them. The journey took most of their lives. At last they crested the rise where a familiar sun greeted them.

“Take my hand once again,” Sonny said, inspired.

“After all we have been through.” Rae took his hand without hesitating.

“I don’t understand why you’re still here.”

She said, as plainly as she always had, “I love you.”

He did not understand why and never would, but as they reached the summit, the expanse of rock and cliff and deepest ocean stole his breath. Finally, he accepted it.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton