|
This story was written for a writing contest in
which the editor provided the first several lines (as dialogue in this case) and
the entrants created a story from this.
"I must have taken a wrong turn after the river,
Dad. The pavement stopped awhile back and there's nowhere to turn around."
Sydney cried into the phone.
"Hold on, honey, I'm trying to find it on the
map." Sydney could hear a static noise and couldn't tell if it was the
rustling paper of the map or the phone.
"You're starting to break up some. Please hurry,
Dad, I think I'm about to lose the connection."
"I don't see any dirt roads in that area - "
And the line went dead.
"No! Please don't do this to me right now!"
Sydney demanded to no one but the universe at large. She tried the cell phone
again but the display indicated no service. She opened the car door and walked
up and down the road several hundred yards in both directions hoping to get a
signal. Nothing. Her anxiety about getting lost was escalating into anger at
herself for listening to her brother's advice and taking his prescribed short
cut.
"What am I going to do? I cannot believe this is
happening! I can't go forward; I don't even know if I'm on the right road! I
can't go backward; I'm no good at going in reverse (evidenced by the dented rear
fender and broken taillight). I just can't! Please, God, show me the way
out."
This was at least the hundredth time in the past few
months that Sydney had made this same plea and had yet to receive a celestial
compass. There are periods in life that come as deceptively hidden treasures,
and only the most tenacious explorers find the gifts buried beneath what appears
as strife, uncertainty, hopelessness and discouragement. Our limited world-views
convince us that these episodes are our lot in life: to be expected, endured and
overcome through sheer determination and random acts of futility.
Sydney struggled against the tide of thoughts that
threatened to take her out to this sea of negativity, but she was getting tired.
She no longer cared about getting through this herself; the flames of her fiery
independence had dwindled down to slowly dying embers.
Recently divorced with a small child, Sydney James was
perched precariously on the threshold of a new life she had not planned. She was
not equipped for being a single mother; the notion had always been terrifying.
She had no idea how she was going to manage all the details alone, in addition
to finding a job, setting up a child care situation and making ends meet. She
wanted so much to not screw this up.
Like her own mother, Sydney's mother left them when
she was a small child and their father moved them in with his folks, but the
family never recovered. It was Claudia who was the rock in Sydney's world.
Grandma Claudia had been the only constant loving person Sydney had ever known.
From her first tooth coming out to her first kiss, first job and first child,
Claudia had guided, nurtured and supported Sydney through every step of her
life. Any time she had a question about anything, Claudia seemed to have an
answer. All her answers were derived from the same central message she conveyed
at every opportunity: Love What Is.
Sydney found an incomparable solace through her bond
with Grandma Claudia that kept her sane, centered and connected to something
beautiful and wonderful in life. And now she was dying. The call came from
Jarrod that morning that Claudia was slipping in and out of consciousness and
the doctors didn't have much hope of recovery. Claudia had been in and out of
the hospital for months with heart problems.
How ironic, thought Sydney. Jarrod had given
her directions to the hospital, and in her state of shock, she must have written
them down incorrectly. Now, she was stuck, didn't know which way to go and
frantic that she would not reach Claudia in time to see her before...God, it was
too much to take in that she might be losing her after everything else she'd
lost. Her whole life at this moment seemed to be a recurring theme of feeling
lost and without direction.
Walking back to the car, Sydney saw her daughter just
waking up from her nap and looking around from the confines of the carseat.
"Where are we, Mommy?" Her sweet voice
asked.
"Well, sweetie, Mommy took a wrong turn, and I'm
thinking about what to do next. We'll be there soon." She reassured in an
unconvincing tone.
"Why don't we just go back the way we came?"
Olivia offered innocently.
Sydney stared at her daughter and absorbed everything
embedded in the message.
"I am not going back the way I came, so help me,
God!" Sydney exclaimed to herself. "I'll take my chances on the road
up ahead before going back that way, thank you very much."
She had taken the suggestion a bit personally, but
through this noticed a fortitude about moving forward that she hadn't seen in
herself in quite some time. She took a deep breath, started the car, and pressed
the accelerator. The road was bumpy, narrow and caused Sydney to want to bite
her nails more than a few times before leading them to their destination.
Claudia was awake when they arrived, and Sydney held
her hand as the two looked tenderly into the eyes, heart and soul of the other.
"What am I going to do without you?"
"My dear sweet child. The answers are not in me.
They're in you."
The magnitude of this wisdom opened Sydney's heart
wide. She knew everything this enchanted woman had taught her about love, life
and remaining still to wait for the answers to come was inside her and always
available. She'd gotten off the mountain, hadn't she? It was time to stop asking
God for a way out and start listening for the answer.
©2003 StoriesByEmail.com
|
