Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Trust Issues--Fiction

"Will you catch me?"  That had been their game together.  Before each leap off of the monkey bars, Callie would holler those words at Jason, and he would catch her, even though they were five.

"Will you catch me?" She'd sang them as she leapt from the diving board into the pool one summer when they were ten.

"Will you catch me?"  She'd whispered them the night she'd climbed out of her bedroom window, when they were seventeen.  They'd tumbled into love as easily as they'd tumbled into friendship, and Callie thought that they'd always be together.
 
Will you catch me?  The words came from another time, but Callie heard them again, as if they were now.  She sat on a log amid a mass of dead leaves and stared at the road.  Will you catch me?  It had been a long time since she'd been back here, but nothing had changed.  Their last time together was still an open wound in her heart, and Callie bit her lip to bring herself back to the present.

Jason had always answered 'yes'.  He'd always been there for her.  Until he wasn't.  And Callie had been falling ever since.

Without Jason to anchor her, Callie had drifted so very far from who she was and who she wanted to be. She loved him, but she was determined to forget, and to move on. It had been ten years of silence then. Her own self-loathing had kept her away when she might have relented. But one day she knew that she would never recover herself as long as she stayed in Phoenix.  Because she still loved him. She needed to forgive herself, and she needed to forgive Jason.  There was no changing the past, but what about the future?  So she wrote him a letter, her heart in each and every word.  Then she came back home to wait.  Will you catch me?  

Callie heard the sound of the car's engine long before the car pulled into the parking lot next to where she sat, and her relief brought her tears to the surface.  The door to the car opened and Callie's heart skipped a beat at the sight of Jason. She stood, head down, as he walked around the front of his car and stopped.  She waited.  Finally, his hand was underneath her chin, lifting her gaze to his own.

"No more, Callie," Jason's voice was firm, his eyes cold. 

It was the answer she had expected, but to hear him say it opened the floodgates on her grief. She fell to her knees, the dead leaves swirling around her. 

"Callie," Jason continued, his voice softer. "He doesn't even know who you are, and you're his mother.   Before I forgive you for anything, you need to meet your son. Come home to us. For good this time."





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6 comments:

  1. Sounds like she needs to learn to catch herself. This feels so much more real because he's not prepared to just "catch her" this time, but I like that he's still the rock here. Would enjoy seeing more of this one!

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  2. Oh my, what a gut punch. You did a masterful job showing me Callie's emotions and then to reveal the reasons at the end, just such a turn around in how to react to her. When I go back and re-read knowing what I know at the end, it changes the story completely. Well done! Love this.

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  3. This is my favorite story of this weeks write-in! Enjoyed the "Will you catch me" symbolism, enjoyed the transition from past to the present. Character was well-written and most of all, it was a smooth read (that's what I value the most). Well done!

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  4. The opening sentences took us on a journey, really set the stage. There's a lot to be explored in this little story.

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  5. I love how you continued "will you catch me" throughout the piece. And the little gut punch at the end was perfectly timed.

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  6. Great write-up! Writing is a talent, and it must not be wasted. As with everything that we had been entrusted, we should let it grow and share it with the world.>self development books

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