This week’s prompt is:
The heavens opened.
Write for at least 7 minutes. You’re welcome to share your piece in the comments if you’d like to.
This week’s prompt is:
The heavens opened.
Write for at least 7 minutes. You’re welcome to share your piece in the comments if you’d like to.
What a great prompt! While it will take me a few more hours to finish this piece, I wanted you to know you took me back to Salina, Kansas in 1970.
The Heavens Opened
Cathy and Tim left the bank. They knew they shouldn’t have bought the lot on the lake, but they couldn’t help themselves. They had yet to save enough for a down payment on a home, yet found the cash for a down payment on the lot on the lake. There was no home on the lot, nothing but a lonely dock the previous owner had put in. He had a boat. Cathy and Tim did not. Still, the lot was inviting, several tall trees providing shade, and a scrubby undergrowth throughout, except for a sandy beach where the lake water casually lapped the shore in a peaceful rhythm.
They still lived in the apartment they had rented two years ago. They would continue to live there until their financial situation improved. But they had reasonable hopes for that. Cathy had been promoted to manager, with only one year’s experience, at Draper’s Do All hardware store. And Tim had one year left in engineering school. Once he graduated, he could expect to get a good paying job, the start of a career. They would be fine.
They both anticipated Cathy being able to quit, or at least cut back, and then they could raise their family. Two boys, two girls, if everything went in exact accordance with their vision. No one can be sure of such things, but no harm in hoping. Some of their hopes lay within the realm of a well-planned future, and would almost certainly be realized. Some hopes, they knew, were more reliant on good fortune. Time would tell. They could live with that.
Thinking way far ahead, Cathy and Tim hoped to build a year-round home on the lot by the lake. But it was a dream home, and they knew it would not be affordable anytime soon. In two years, they would have the deposit for a house in town, and they could stay there for as long as it took to plan and build on the lake. Family first, once they had a family. But some day, some day, they would have their dream home on the lake.
In the meantime they had the lot, a place where they could camp and go fishing. They had visions of teaching their kids to fish, row, paddle, and swim. For now, having left the bank, the natural thing to do was go visit the lot. The sky was not at all cheerful; overcast gray and uninviting. They didn’t care. They had their fishing poles in the car, and a cooler with snacks, and drove the ten miles to their lot on the lake.
As they got out of the car, Cathy looked up. “This storm won’t be going around us. It’s going to rain, sooner than later.”
Tim looked up with her. “Hey, it’s only rain. We’ve been wet before. The main thing is there’s no thunder clouds. Lightning would be the only danger, and there won’t be any.”
“OK, then,” said Cathy. Let’s go fishing!”
They walked the short distance to the dock, fishing poles and cooler in hand and walked to the end of the dock.
“We should have brought folding chairs,” Cathy observed.
“We can just sit. Take off your shoes and we can sit here with our feet in the water.”
They were not great anglers, just casual fishermen. They placed lures on their lines and cast them into the lake, gradually reeling them in, in hopes of attracting some lake trout. In the clear water, they could see some smaller fish swimming beneath their feet. The larger ones would be a little farther out.
It was a strange juxtaposition. As they sat there, it could have been two hundred years ago. Nothing here had really changed in all that time, yet their life together was brand new. It felt settling, reassuring to them to be here where time made no demands. Maybe that had been the attraction of this lot, all along.
They were mostly silent, absorbing the atmosphere.
And then, rather suddenly, the heavens opened, and they were instantly drenched in the downpour.
“We need to go in,” Cathy said.
“Go in where?” said Tim. “There’s nothing here. We’re already as wet as we can get. Let’s keep fishing.”
Even with rivulets of rain sweeping down her face, Cathy smiled. “Yes. Let’s keep fishing. Rain is part of all this. No sense running from it.”
Tim smiled back. They kissed lightly and then went on about their fishing.