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Hullo! This is your author speaking (again). This was originally written for school, so it has a bunch of forced metaphors and so on from class. However, it's the main inspiration for this whole piece here, so you can choke through it if you wan. More to come soon, scout's honor.
Her feet hit the sand and she instantly began to run, racing the seagulls as they wheeled and cried above her, flying for a safe roost. Jade was at a little place call Sunset Beach, located on the west side of Hermit Island, a campground in Small Point, Maine. It had always been a safe place for her, no electricity, no highways, nothing but the soft sounds of nature and a bell buoy to lull her to sleep. Jade needed this respite from the everyday drudgery, considering what had been going on at home lately…
Jade shook her head and pelted up the weaving sand trail to her bike. With hardly a break in her step, she swung a leg up and over the seat, clicked her helmet on, and pedaled away, down the steep dirt roads. She enjoyed the feeling of the wind on her face, washing away the fights of the past month. Jade tilted her bike down a certain road and soared into her campsite, narrowly avoiding two trees and a tent stake.
"Jesus, Jade. Don't kill yourself." Jade's mother, Rachel, snapped. Jade pulled her helmet off and slammed the kickstand down into the soft dirt.
"I‘m fine, thanks. Nice welcome home there, mom." she retorted, trying to keep the bite out of her voice, but failing miserably. Rachel's eyes narrowed.
"Don't back talk. It's not becoming." Rachel said finally. Jade heaved a sigh and walked into the screen house, staring hungrily at the snack food laid out as though for a King's court. Chips and dip rubbed shoulders with salsa and Tostitos, crackers and cheese lay innocently next to Fritos, apples were counteracted by pop tarts, all adding to a food war on the picnic table.
"Oh thank God! Food!" Jade yelled, attempting to break the tension with a sly subject change. She descended on the chips, as a pack of lions will upon a fallen gazelle.
"Thank who?" Rachel sneered. Jade paused, hand halfway into the bag of Fritos, as the anger came flooding back. She dropped the bag on the picnic table and backed out of the screen house.
"Let it go." Jade said finally, edging towards her bike. Rachel caught her hand.
"Jade, you know how I feel about this Atheism phase. Please just consider…"
"It's not a phase!" Jade yelled, yanking out of Rachel's grasp. "What has God ever done for me? When has He ever helped anyone? So why should I believe in Him?"
Jade pulled her helmet back on with an angry jerk, leaping back onto her bike. Rachel moved to try and stop her, but Jade was already out of the campsite and halfway down the road. Tears streaked her face as she veered onto the main road, flying through the gathering darkness, fighting her way north.
"Matt, I'm so glad you're here. Jade and I…had a bit of a fight and she's ridden off on her bike somewhere. I've looked around everywhere, but I can't find her!" Rachel finished with a little sob of despair. "It's just been so hard lately to deal with her!"
Matt fingered the handle of his bike, already tuning out the gasping cries of the elder woman. He thought for a moment before remembering an offhand comment made by Jade, the day before. 'I absolutely love the northern beaches,' she had said, twirling her hair like she always did when talking about nothing. 'They're so secluded and perfect.'
"I know where she's gone," he said finally, staring at the ground below his feet. "I'll go talk her into coming back."
"Oh, thank you, Matt. I'm just so worried… And it's getting so dark." Rachel murmured haplessly. Matt nodded and made for his bike before he noticed the sudden darkness and grabbed a flashlight, as an afterthought. He then got back on his bike, swerved onto the road and followed the well-worn ruts into the curtains of twilight. Behind him, three tiny droplets of water splashed against the thirsty ground, followed by a far off grumble of thunder.
Jade wiped a bit of wetness off her face, realizing after a second that, no, she wasn't crying, it was starting to rain. The clouds cried for her, sending their tears to comfort and cool her burning body. The rain fell in a mist, softly, almost like the morning dew on Jade’s sorrowful form. She hugged her knees close to her chest, recalling the need for closeness so common among young children. She sniffed as she recalled her mother's harsh words. A month ago, Jade had finally admitted what she had known for quite a few months. She no longer believed in God. It hadn't been an easy discovery, but things happened. Lots of things that hurt like the fire of a thousand infernos to think about.
For a long time, things had just been going down the wrong path. Jade remembered the day last autumn, when she had been home alone. The phone had rung, just as a crash of thunder shook the house and the lights flickered. She had hesitantly answered the phone, already sensing the bad news that was about to reach its arm out and grab her in a choke hold.
Her grandfather had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. To the family, it was worse than death. Alzheimer’s disease is a manifestation of a thousand fears. It robs you of your memories, your passion, your love, and your life. It slowly kills you, stealing the infected soul away, little by little, until all that’s left is an empty shell, a husk of the person it used to be.
The diagnosis had been the yell that sets off an avalanche. Little by little, whatever omnipotent being that ruled Jade’s life stole her happiness away. After so much stress, her parents split up, not permanently. It was more… a break, they had told her. A respite, a time to figure things out.
Jade finally decided that it was too much. She turned to God, that great big guy in the sky that was supposed to help you in times of need. She asked, begged pleaded for help. But all she found was silence. Jade concluded that there was either no one there or, if there was, she wanted nothing to do with someone who could watch so much go wrong and do nothing.
But her mother… didn’t approve. Rachel wanted Jade to be a good Christian and work back into the beliefs that could save your soul from eternal damnation, to go back to that silent creature in the heavens and plead for forgiveness. Jade wouldn’t, she couldn’t lie about something that important, she couldn’t..!
Jade let her mind shy away from the searing memories, flying to a safer roost on more docile thoughts. Her mind turned to Matt, her closest friend since she had been a tiny baby. Could he possibly mean something more to her? Jade smiled softly and shook her head. It would be more simple to figure out the meaning of life than muddle through that relationship.
Jade lifted her face to the heavens, trying to discern the omnipotent being that was said to dwell there, and found a complete surprise. Where Jade had expected the soft gray of gathering darkness, there was a stormier hue of clouds in turmoil. As she stared, a drop of rain, real rain, big and wet and cold, danced down to land on her nose. There was the sound of softly patted drums from all around as more rain followed their leader.
Jade sighed and turned back towards the path before realizing that it was two beaches away. She sighed and began to climb off her perch before a shock of lightning, across the bay, caught her eye. Jade stared at the open, flat stretch of two beaches before her and shook her head. No way. She cringed as a rumble of thunder found it's way across the water to her ears. Jade clambered down the side of the rock to an outcropping, several feet above the high tide water, and curled up there, a fox in her den. A slow, drowsy heaviness whispered through her weary limbs and slowly sent her into the land of dreams, right as a flash of lightning lit her peaceful features in a grotesque, photograph negative caricature before sending her further into sleep. The effect faded and Jade sighed, curling tighter into her safe hideaway like a kitten in it’s basket, dreaming of happier days.
He groaned, feeling his muscles protest as he pushed up another hill. His legs ached and burned, punishing their master for the torture he demanded them to participate in. Fifteen minutes of hard riding and he was still only three quarters of the way there! Matt thought angrily. Jade had to pick tonight to run off, he supposed blindly before rolling his eyes. Jade had 'perfect' timing; of course she would end up running off at night, in a thunderstorm.
Lost in thought, Matt zoned out for a second too long. With a crack, a tree branch fell across the road, blocking the only way to Jade with a blur and a slam, sending sticks and stones flying.. Matt yelped and swerved, sending the bike too far to the left and toppling over, dropping the flashlight and flinging him towards the trees. He skidded, like an out of control skier suddenly surround by ice, across dirt and rocks and flipping into dewy grass. Matt somehow managed to stop before any huge injury was incurred, and he lay where he fell, sides heaving.
Of all the rotten luck, he thought bitterly, thinking a curse upon Jade before hastily taking it back. Jade couldn't help it, lately, with her parents splitting up and her grandfather being diagnosed with Alzheimer's. She had her reasons, even if she kept them secret (It had taken three weeks of pleading before Jade had revealed the barest of information about her family troubles).
Matt stood and brushed some of the grit off his clothing before casting around for his glasses. They were no worse for wear, and actually seemed a little dryer than they had been. Small miracles. Matt grabbed his flashlight and turned it on.
No go. He stared at it for a moment, smacking it against his leg a couple times for good measure. It flickered weakly before dying completely. Matt sighed and dropped the light as lightning flashed, followed half a second later by an enormous crack of thunder.
Matt stared hopelessly at his fallen bike, letting a newfound British term float to the surface of his conflicted mind, and moaned, "Ah, bugger."
Matt sighed heavily and retrieved his fallen bike, sighing as he wiped dirt and water off the seat. He still had a long way to go before he was anywhere near the northern beaches, and he had absolutely no idea where on the three stretches Jade would be. He hated feeling so helpless, so confused, so worried. Matt picked his way carefully down the road, trying to memorize what obstacles he saw in the brief flashes of light from the storm. It was slow going, slow as molasses flowing uphill.
When Matt finally coasted down the last hill into the sand lot that signaled the end of his journey, he nearly collapsed into the road, feeling like someone lost in the desert that has just found a gas station in the middle of nowhere. He dropped his bike, not bothering to prop it up in his sudden rush. He spotted Jade's bike lying haphazardly next to the dunes when a spear of lightning lanced out of the clouds and struck the island just off Sand Dollar Beach. Matt gave a little yell before running down the rain-packed pathway.
"Jade!" he called, emerging from the jungle of dune grass onto a seaweed strewn beach. "Jade, where the heck are you?" Matt muttered, glancing at the rocky outcropping on his left. He rolled his eyes for a second. Of course, trust Jade to find high, open ground in the middle of a thunderstorm.
"Come on, Jade! Where are you?" he yelled, finally reaching the top of the rock. Still nothing. Matt leaped off the other side, falling on all fours into wet sand, as a roar of thunder met another flash of lightning. He dashed across the rock-strewn beach, making for the other end, where he could barely make out another behemoth of blackened rock jutting into the sea.
"Jade!" he yelled again, as he drew nearer to the rock. He jumped for a handhold, but it slipped from his grasp, sending him flipping back to the beach, before his hand caught on someone else's.
"Matt?" a very bedraggled, tired looking Jade asked, staring at the boy she had caught. She blinked sleep out of her eyes, slowly becoming aware of the world around her. She pulled him up onto the rock and stood. "What're you doing here?"
Matt stared at her for a moment. "Oh, I dunno. My friend ran off during a storm, at night, made her mother worry, made me worry, gee, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing here!" he replied sarcastically. Jade blushed.
"Sorry. I just had to be alone…and here is alone….and I'm sorry." Jade said finally, before sitting down on the rocks. Matt dropped beside her.
"So what's beating you up, Jade? Other than what I already know from talking with your mom too much." Matt asked. Jade looked away.
"I don't want to talk about it," she whispered, staring out at the boiling sea and rolling clouds, and the electric exchange between them.
"Yes, you do." Matt said finally, taking her hand in his. "You shouldn't keep everything inside like you have been. You can talk to me, Jade. I'm your friend. That's what I'm for."
Jade looked up into his eyes, noting the inquisitive look slowly being covered by a softer, slightly more hurt glance. She thought about what he was asking, asking her to open up and divulge the secrets she had harbored for a little less than a year. Her grandfather's diagnosis, her turn to Atheism, the fights with her mother, the loss.
But that look in his eyes…
Jade sighed. "It started about a year ago, when my mom told me that grandpa had Alzheimer's disease."
As Jade talked and Matt nodded, the rain slowly died away, the thunder fading into the distance. The clouds started to break apart, letting the soft, healing face of the moon smile down on the two teenagers, bathing them in a misty, silver light.
Matt walked up behind Jade, tapping her left shoulder with a playful smile painted on his face. Jade snorted and whipped her head around to the right, before realizing Matt's double trick.
"Gotcha." He said quietly, sitting down and putting an arm around her shoulders. "So how did it go?"
Jade sighed, taking a second to look out at the sunset. The sun had already dropped so only the very top was peaking above the horizon, barely managing to send a golden glow across the water, yet it somehow made it, and had kept her warm for the past ten minutes.
"It…went okay. Me and mom are going to try and listen more, not fight so much. It's going to be hard but…it'll work." she said finally. Matt smiled.
"Told you it would." he said, barely managing to keep the singsong 'told you so' tone out of his voice. Jade smiled faintly back at him.
"So. Now what?" she asked, glancing back out at the ocean. The sea reached out a hand and gave her feet a little splash, though this time, it wasn't an invitation. It was more of a goodbye, a bittersweet gesture. The ocean was going to have to give up its sad little child, and let her grow into a strong young woman.
"I'm not really sure." Matt replied, looking across the water to where he knew the mainland was, peering at the winking lights as darkness began to enter the world again. He smiled again, and pointed at one light in particular. "Hey, look. A lighthouse."
Jade looked, and wondered, then looked back at Matt. "I don't need it. I've got my personal lighthouse right here. Thanks, Matt. I needed that guidance you gave me."
Matt nodded in mock seriousness before bursting into laughter. "Do you know how cheesy that sounded, Jade?" he finally gasped.
Jade punched him in the arm, just a little too hard. Matt toppled off the rock into the water. He shot up immediately, yelling about the cold, and then a wicked smile flashed like lightning across his face. Jade frowned for the split second she had before Matt pulled her into the water beside him. The two laughed and splashed each other, acting as carefree as toddlers.
And that's the way people should act at Hermit Island, Jade thought, they should be happy. They should be carefree. They should be okay for a little while. But mostly, they should just be happy. And I finally am.
I finally am!
