Wisps of hair fluttered through the breeze, as Sheila turned
the wheel of her new boat. The wave pattern behind her looked like inverted V’s
and continued rippling larger toward the shoreline. Puffs of white were
scattered like splattered paint across the deep, blue sky. Sheila was so
grateful to be taking a holiday break of her own… a mini-retreat from her world
of being a mom of three young kids and a weekend nurse in the ER. Life had
become overwhelming for her, after her husband took his dream job of computer consulting
which required much travel. She felt like a single mom, Monday through Friday,
and then worked 12-hour night shifts during the busiest times in the ER on weekends,
when he was usually home. When he wasn’t, she was grateful for the elderly
couple or a babysitter who would watch her children when she had to work, since
they were sleeping most of the time.
Now, she was glad that her parents were willing to take the
kids for a week or a day, here and there. They were finally willing to get to
know their grandchildren. How nice, after all these years of estrangement
between her and them, since she left home and went out on her own.
Something flew into her eye and Sheila tried to wipe it out
quickly. As she rubbed her eye, she realized, she was lying in bed and her
parents were no longer around. They had
died a couple days ago and tears flooded her eyes.
This was written
during my Practice Writing group with a prompt of “daydream” for 10 minutes. I chose to write about “dream.”
Precious Linda, c. 2013
