Sarah's Canticle, Patrick Sean Lee [best classic books to read txt] 📗

yard, two, perhaps three beyond the face of the cliff. We stood in absolute silence for what seemed an eternity, but was more likely mere seconds. She looked up at me, perhaps pleading for me to believe in the hallucination she had given life to. Her gaze pierced me, as it was always wont to do, capturing me again.

     “We haven’t much time, dearest Michael. Here is your bridge—our bridge. Come with me.” Sarah stepped off the ledge of rock into the emptiness lying beneath the beginning of the celestial roadway. Her right hand held my left, outstretched, gently urging me to follow. I took a step, testing the air beyond the cliff with the toe of my shoe, much the same as I had done a thousand times at the edge of the water far below in bare feet. My foot sank. I jerked it back to the safety of land, and in so doing lost hold of her hand. I teetered backward, but gained my balance again in time to see her shaking her head sadly.

     “Hurry. Do it, Michael. Come with me.”

     “It’s not real!”

     “Come with me! Take hold of my hand again!”

     “It’s not…I can’t!”

     Sarah looked at me for a second or two, and then turned and walked past the shimmering anchorage. She glanced over her shoulder one last time, and then continued on alone.

     “Sarah!”

                                    ***


     A week has passed. I stand at the cliff, ignoring Henry Island, the smashing of the waves below, Ireland far, far away. A pall of gray clouds has descended, driven by an angry storm bearing down on me from the north. I am aware of none of this…nothing, really, only searching for Sarah in the ever-blowing wind, as though in its frozen touch she will reappear and bring me back to sanity.

     But…I know I’m empty, empty as the wind.


     “Empty As The Wind” Grayson Hugh. Thank you for permission to use the title of this amazing song, Grayson.

Imprint

Text: (c) Patrick Sean lee, 2011
Publication Date: 07-24-2011

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
With deepest thanks to Grayson Hugh