Barefoot Bay_The Write Man by Lisa Ricard Claro

Author:Lisa Ricard Claro [Claro, Lisa Ricard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kindle Worlds
Published: 2017-12-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Merry stood beside the gravestone bearing her mother’s name. She stared at the letters and numbers etched into the smoky granite and battled the dueling emotions of sadness and anger. Holly stood beside her, buoyed by Ben’s strong arms. The couple was grieving the loss of their second child, a spark of unknown potential stolen from them by way of a miscarriage the doctors couldn’t explain. Yet despite her personal loss, there had been no question in Holly’s mind about coming here today to lay flowers on their mother’s grave.

Merry would have taken advantage of any opportunity not to come.

Holly slid her arm around Merry, and the sisters leaned into each other. “We did everything we could for her, Mer. You know we did. She made her own choices in the end.”

Merry squashed tears and nodded. Holly was right. They had done all they could, from the frustration of playing nursemaid, to the pain of tough love, to emotional interventions. Every effort had ended the same way, with their mother weeping and making promises she wasn’t strong enough to keep. Bouts in rehab had allowed the girls to see for a few weeks or months how things might be, if only. But recovery was short lived, old patterns proving impossible for their mother to break. Her addictions killed her in the end.

The wind kicked up, cold and brisk, stealing tendrils of hair from the clip Merry had used to pin a bun. She tucked the loose strands behind her ears and shoved her hands in the pockets of her black pea coat, thinking about the other night on the beach with Nick. She’d been wearing cutoffs and a tee shirt then, and Nick’s lightweight jacket—a far cry from the boots, jeans, and thick sweater beneath her wool coat now. The Gulf breeze, warm and balmy, had played with her hair, and Nick had kissed her for the first time. Now they were lovers, and he waited with Chula for her return. Merry’s heart skipped a beat. Something bloomed inside her, something she thought would never find her, in spite of her sunny-side-up mantra and insistence that silver linings were everywhere. It was hope. She felt hope. And for the first time in forever she believed she knew what that gift meant.

Merry leaned forward and rested her hands on the headstone. Brown and yellow leaves skittered across her boots and swirled around her mother’s grave. She bowed her head and whispered words of love and forgiveness, releasing the anger she’d held in her heart for so long. She had the chance now for a new beginning, and she refused to ruin it by accepting for even a moment those things best left to fly away in the wind.

“Thanks, Mom,” she whispered.

She hadn’t wanted to come here today, hadn’t wanted to stare down the past. But she had, and instead of pain had discovered the forgiveness inside her. She shrugged the heaviness of past burdens from her shoulders.

Ready and excited for a new beginning, she smiled.

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