The Beloved Son by Jay Quinn

Author:Jay Quinn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2008-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

SATURDAY

11

KARL WOKE EASILY at the same time he normally did at home. His internal clock was righting itself despite the demands brought of this unexpected holiday with its swift changes of beds and emotional currents. Rolling onto his back, he searched the ceiling over the bed for the projected time from the clock at the bedside. There was still enough dimness in the early March morning to make out that it was six-ten. He lay for a moment and was relieved to find his headache had disappeared. Despite the early-morning interruption of his nightmares and the time spent with Sven in the dark kitchen, he felt rested and relaxed. The aspirin, milk, and conversation with his brother had eased Karl’s subconscious demons, and he’d slept the rest of the night peacefully.

Beside him, Caroline breathed deeply, still wound comfortably in sleep. Karl watched her sleeping for a moment. The fatigued sadness that had creased her face the night before had disappeared. Karl admired the familiar contours of her features. She was what nineteenth- century literature would have described as a handsome woman. Hers was not the striking loveliness that his mother had and still possessed. While Annike was pure Nordic, Caroline’s own distinctive looks were a hybrid of many streams of genetic confluence. A typical eastern North Carolinian, she came from mainly Anglo-Irish stock with an insistent strain of Choctaw-Cherokee characteristics.

Those very qualities had first attracted Karl, who found her looks exotic. He had been easily captivated by her hazel eyes and prominent cheekbones. As she had matured into the woman who lay beside him now, she had maintained her economical body that had been knit from birth to last near a hundred years. Her multitudinous family was long-lived with no evidence of dementia, even among the aunts, uncles, and cousins who had passed their eightieth year. Karl took particular comfort in that knowledge, watching Caroline in the intimacy of the guest room that morning. While it had been made abundantly clear to him over the past few days that time was indeed rushing along at a speed that confounded him, the stillness of that moment alone with his beloved wife provided him with an opportunity to savor her presence for several serene moments.

Karl pushed back the bedcovers and stood as gently as he could so as not to disturb her. For a few seconds he experienced the familiar head rush of rising. It seemed as if the room continued to move with his momentum, and he waited for the scene before his eyes to still. The increasing regularity of that disorientation on rising was now starting to trouble him. After seeing his parents’ sudden spurt of aging, he briefly entertained the thought that his head rushes on rising might be more than simple middle-aged low blood pressure. The sensation passed and he dismissed the thought, ascribing it to an overactive imagination.

He concentrated instead on another familiar morning ritual. He was drawn to the window, and he pulled the shade away from the edge of the window frame to peek out at the new morning in the unfamiliar neighborhood.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.