A story, a journey, and a tug.

 

Here is my beach theme, a short story that is very deep and intense. Not gonna lie.
Enjoy. :)

~Heather Rose

"A Journey" 

            “Hey, are you okay?”

            She was shaken from a distant dream. It didn’t quite feel like a dream, though. In fact, she wasn’t even sure that it had happened.

            “I’m fine. You want to swim?”

            “We just decided that we’re not going to today. Seriously, are you okay? You spaced out for about a minute there.”

            “Oh, right.” She slowly remembered the conversation they had just minutes earlier. How had she forgotten that? Where had her mind gone? She decided to brush it off and immerse herself in enjoyment of the day.

            It was an unexplored paradise for both of them. A fresh embark on unexplored territory. They had travelled nearly two hours in his time-worn little car, just to get to this beach. The coast was embossed with scabrous cliffs and meandering waves. The sand’s uniform golden-white was highlighted by the water’s gifts of seaweed, driftwood, and shells. There was a shadow of the waves, perpetually marking where they had been, and always will be. Just as one would lap the surface of the sparkling beige, it would sneakily retreat, as if it didn’t want to be noticed. The rhythm was so constant, like the heartbeat of creation itself.

            The two of them had been exploring new horizons for almost two years. They were kindred in their insatiable desire to travel and to see all that could be seen. Her desire woke his, and he was willing to give all that he could to satisfy it. His mind suddenly needed answers, and he thought that this chocolate-haired, dreaming girl could help him in his quest. All that she could provide for him, however, was a gesture towards the door. It would be up to him to open it.

            Her journey was simply a response to growth inside of her. The seed had been planted a decade before, and was beginning to push its way into cultivated soil. Her heart was being softened, and her spirit being wooed. Although she was completely oblivious, this seed’s fruit would not only transform her own life, but his too.

            Isn’t that the way He works?

            They had parked at one end of the crescent-shaped beach, and had been walking along the shore, without much of a destination in mind, for a few hours. The sun was low, and the clouds were painting themselves in purples and oranges and pinks. The small crowd of people there was slowly dissipating as the minutes passed.

            “I think this must be the best time of day to be here.” He said. The sun was spilling across the water, drizzling stripes of light across the horizon. He noticed that her eyes were betraying an uncanny awe. He didn’t know why, but the sight of her child-like wonder triggered an aching nostalgia in his own heart. He stifled it and distracted himself. “Look at those birds dive-bomb the water. Poor fish, huh?”

            “Oh, yeah,” She was once again awakened from the dream. Everything about this place was stirring something inside of her. She too was overwhelmed with nostalgia, only hers was more potent. She actually was familiar with that thing waking inside of her. It was born out of a place she’d been before, unlike this beach.

            “I’ve never been to a beach before.” She said, “Have you?”

            “Of course I have! Once when I was a kid. Didn’t you have anything remotely resembling a childhood?” He laughed and kicked the lazy waves. She rolled her eyes and shoved him towards the water.
            “Shut up.” She scoffed, and they walked on. Their footprints were being erased behind them. She marveled at the sand between her toes, and the tenderness of the sand. She felt like she was invading on something sacred.

            The daydream seeped its way back. She imagined a girl, with long chestnut-colored hair that curled at the ends, just like hers, braided with ribbons and flowers. The girl wore a flowing white dress that skimmed the crest of the waves. She skipped along the water’s edge, dancing lightly as if she weren’t even touching the ground. She danced along the shore, until she reached a grassy hill, where stood a tree…

            “Hey!” He said again, “What’s going on with you? You keep spacing out.”

            “Ah, yeah. Sorry.” She tried to grab hold of the dream, wishing that it were tangible enough to embrace.

            “I was trying to ask you if you think we should turn back yet. It’s getting late. We have to get back home.”

            “No, we can’t leave… not yet. Just a bit farther. I want to see as much as we can.” She replied. She couldn’t leave yet. Something was pulling her, tugging at her heart; something about this place. She couldn’t leave before she figured it out.

            “Yeah, but we’ve been here all day. It’ll be dark soon. You won’t be able to see anything then.” He was discouraging the exploration of this place, and that was not like his character. She could see this, but she was more concerned with finding whatever was drawing her.

            She wasn’t sure if she should confide these thoughts in him. He was her best friend, but he never welcomed her spiritual pursuits. She had been stung by his skepticism before, and she didn’t want that to happen again. Whatever she was looking for now was more intimate and deep than anything she’d ever sought before. It seemed a thing too delicate and precious to be broken.

            Her hardness felt unwelcome, however. She knew that the only way that she could possibly find the source of this familiarity was if he would be her ally.

            “I, I just can’t leave. There has to be something here… something that I have to find…” She cautiously began.

            “Really? What… what do you mean?” He replied. He was in no place to start listening to her religious dogma. He was currently avoiding whatever voice or tugging he felt in his own heart.

            “I feel like I’ve been here before.” She began. She decided that finding what was pulling her was more important than protecting her vulnerability, “I’ve been here before. Or, not me, but someone. Someone has been here, on this beach, and she was following something. Something-someone- was calling her. She was following it. I can see her, I can feel her… and I think that whoever is calling her is calling me, too. I can hear it. No, I can feel it.” She placed a hand on her middle, to see if the tugging was tangible.

            He was silent for a few moments. He heard the call, too. He looked at her glowing eyes, and he could see that she wasn’t making it up this time. She wasn’t playing a game. She was really, truly, desperately responding to something real. He saw the desperation in her face, and it melted him. He had always been attracted to her, but this was so much deeper. His words came out before he could catch them:

            “I know. I can hear it, too.”

            Her shock was not discreet. She had braced herself for scorn, and he had responded in, what, agreement? His words warmed her cold, hardened heart just enough to let it breathe.

            “You can?” She asked in disbelief.

            “Yes.” He answered.

            “Do you feel it pulling? Does it feel like there’s a rope tied to your heart that is being pulled and tugged on?” She excitedly asked.

            “Well… yeah. I guess so.” He became shy. He realized that he had just opened Pandora’s Box.

            “I think… I think it’s pulling us down the beach. We need to keep going. I can see her…” She closed her eyes and watched the ribbon-headed girl dance down the shore, “I can see her following it. It’s like she’s dancing on the sunlight…”

            She began stepping lighter as they walked, because the more she followed this girl in her dream, the more she realized how alike they were. Her steps began to mimic the girl’s, and the girl’s lightheartedness was slowly showing itself in her own demeanor.

            He noticed, and decided that just this once, he would let himself follow along with her whimsy. Little did he know that this time it would save his life.

             They continued down the shoreline, every quiet moment filled with their own internal monologue. Their thoughts were swarming around the one common factor: the calling. They both heard it. They both felt it. Whoever the voice was, his calling felt right. It felt like they were being called to where they belonged. Slowly and slowly, they both welcomed it. It was pulling them to an uncomfortable place, but they both knew that it was right.

            Suddenly, her threads of familiarity lead to the full picture. They had walked to the end of the beach, and found a grassy knoll, adorned with the most glorious and ancient oak tree either of them had ever seen. She stopped, and watched it in awe as her dreams and memories interwove into one whole and beautiful story. 

            The white-gowned girl who danced along the water was her. She danced along the beach, being called. She was lighthearted and had a childlike peace in her heart, because she knew that she was loved. She knew where she belonged: with Him.

            She danced along the shore, until she found the tree. Her God always waited for her there. He sat on the swing dangling from the lowest branch. It was Him. It was all about Him. And He met with her. He loved her beyond her knowledge, and He knew her.

            “It’s Him.” She gasped. No, there was no glorious Savior sitting on the swing before them. But it was in this moment she realized that the whole dream was real. It came from Him. He had whispered it to her for her whole life.

            And she was so very ready for Him. She was well prepared, and His love was welcomed in her heart.

            “It was here.” She said, “I’ve always seen this place, and then we came here. We really came here! And this tree… He would meet me here! Wait, no… not here, exactly. It was a dream. He’s been with me in my dreams! Can you feel Him? He’s here!”

            “Who? Who are you talking about!?” He asked, “I don’t know who you’re talking about. I can’t feel anything! And I don’t want to!”

            There was a momentary flash of hurt on her face, but then she said: “You have felt Him. You felt Him call you. You heard Him. Why don’t you want to see Him? He’s… He’s God. Oh, don’t pretend that you don’t know who He is.”

            “I don’t know what you expect me to say!” The defensive anger was evident in his voice and manner, “I don’t need any of this! I don’t need Him. I don’t need Him…”

            “Stop trying to convince yourself! Please! Just stop for one second and let Him talk to you! How could He make you any worse off than you already are?” She said.

            “Don’t go there.” He said coolly.

            “Just try. Just let Him in for one second! What could you lose?” She persisted.

            He turned away and tensely ran a hand through his hair. After a moment of jarring silence, he replied quietly, “Control. I could lose control.”

            She watched him with deep understanding in her eyes. She waited a moment for the right words to come.

            “It’s not worth it.”

            “What?” He asked in disbelief

            “Being in control of your life is not worth Him. You…” She held back tears, “You have avoided Him for your whole life. I’ve watched you. God, I can’t believe I watched you do this to yourself. You’re hard. You’re untouchable. Don’t you realize? He can never heal you if you don’t let Him at least speak to you!”

            “Heal me? Do I look sick? NO! I’m…” He stammered frustratingly, “I am fine.”

            “Stop lying to yourself. You cry yourself to sleep at night. You told me that. You’ve told me that there’s never any peace in your heart. You’ve told me that you just need to find it…”

            “That’s why we travel…” He quietly murmured.

            “You’ve been looking. But He’s here. You don’t have to look anymore.” She said.

            He watched her for a moment, and she could see the helplessness in his eyes. She slowly took his hand, and whispered, “Just let Him. Let your guard down for just a moment.”

 

            He closed his eyes and watched his bitterly constructed fortress begin to crack. As it crumbled away, He saw light reaching through with a thousand tiny fingers, grasping for something to illuminate. It burned as it touched him. But when he looked at the spot it had been, he saw that it had been cleansed. He looked at his hands, and saw dirt and grime. He looked at his wrists, and found chains.          

            The light broke the darkness. It cleansed his filth. But only one thing could break the chains: the name.

            He stared at the light as it engulfed him. It swallowed him whole and embraced him. It felt like relief bound by completion. He felt more whole than he ever had. He was incapacitated by the sheer glory of it all.

            Suddenly, out of the light, came a great and mighty voice. It spoke through him and in him, and his very bones were rattled by its words.

            “You know Me.” It said.

            “But-but I don’t.” He stammered.

            “You do, child. You have known of me all of your life. And I have known you.”

            “How could You know me?”

            “I made you. I have always been with you. Now, you choose to hear me. My son, I have waited for you.”

            “But… but why? You are God. You don’t need me. You don’t need to have anything to do with me. You should have given up on me. I’m not worth it, God.” He cried.

            “Have you any idea how much I love you? I have already taken the punishment for anything you could ever do. I will never give up on you. I have never given up on you. Why do you not trust Me?”

            “Be-because.” He spoke between tears, “Trust doesn’t work. It doesn’t work for me. I can only trust myself.”

            “Can you?”

            He stopped, and realized his flawed plan.

            “You cannot trust yourself, but you can always trust Me. I have a plan for you. It is good, and not for your destruction.”

            He stood, and nodded. His acceptance of this fact unleashed a flood of affection from his Creator. He was embraced in warmth and peace, greater than he thought he was even searching for.

            “I… I need You.” He realized, “I need You! I need You every day, Lord!”

            “I am always with you, even unto the end. Now go, my son. Go and seek this plan for you. The path will not be easy, but I will never leave you. You will never be alone. You will face great trouble and trials, but I will be with you. Do not let temptation defeat you. You were made for greater.”

            And with those words, he was brought back to the grassy hill on the end of the beach. She still stood beside him, still holding his hand. She watched patiently as he let this encounter invade his mind and heart. She watched as it transformed him, just as it had transformed her moments before.

            “You’ve met Him.” She said through a beaming smile.

            He looked at her and revealed the same light in his own eyes, “Yes. Yes.”

            “He is so… holy. Isn’t He just so holy?” She declared. She could not think of any other word.

            “He is! He is holy.” He agreed.

With those words, they were in unity with Heaven’s chorus. They were filled with praise and the joy that overflows from it. He ran down the beach, and she danced, both declaring the works of the Lord.