By BluDreamscape

Subtext: Not this time folks.

Note: This is darker than my normal ditty. It’s loosely based on a true story of a young woman who witnessed what hate can do first hand. If you don’t think it’s important to fight discrimination in all its forms than this is what it can lead to. I ask that you do your part in taking a stand so stories like this become fictional. If you feel so inclined, I ask that you take a moment to take that stand: http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/actioncenter/home.html

Contact: Feel free to send me (BluDreamscape@yahoo.com) your glowing praise or your criticism. For more stories you can always check out my little home at the E-Scribblers site.

"Love is the big booming beat which covers up the noise of hate." -- Margaret Cho

*****

She stands alone on the edge of a cliff high above the raging sea. In the background she can hear waves crashing against the rocks, relentlessly, rhythmically. The salty wind brushes her hair from her shoulders as she clutches the long dark trench coat across her chest like a life vest. The bottom of the coat floats behind her with every gust. Her cheeks are red from the cold air, and each path a tear takes leaves her even more chilled. She waits. She waits for the memories of the storm.

*****

She never saw the storm lurking in their eyes. She missed all the signs for the oncoming gray clouds. She was living in blissful ignorance, basking in her silver lining. For her, the air was clear. Her path was open before her like a walk along an old country road in Vermont. The laughter around her was something she took for granted. She was with friends at a summer barbeque. Drinks, food, and laughter filled her with an incredible sense of peace. She was always beautiful in the sun.

She went for a walk with three guys she’d known for years. She couldn’t hear the storm approaching like a low rolling thunder. Sinister clouds had overtaken the three men’s hearts. They waited for just the right moment. They each took a different path to find themselves here. She turned one down for a date, one was raised in a shroud of hate, and one was too blind to do anything but follow. Together they would be a tempest that would ravage her soul.

It was the calm before a storm she didn’t see coming. She walked unaware until lightning split the sky as three pairs of hands grabbed her. The dried riverbed was suddenly filled with a flood of anger and hate. Her clothes were torn and her cries carried with the wind through the night. The hands ravaged her landscape, while their hate hailed down upon her relentlessly. Her tears flowed like rain mixing in the ever growing river of blood, terror, and anguish. She fought for her life, clawing against the unrelenting tide. Eventually, her strength failed her as she started drowning in her pain, helpless to find a safe harbor. The hurricane had come and swept away her innocence with the ferocity of gale force winds.

As the storm began to let up, she was left there to die as if stranded on a raft in the churning sea. Their laughter joined the chorus of the storm’s wrath. She could hardly hear their sickening pride over the thunder of her heartbeat. Her only crime was accepting her heart’s choice of loving another woman. Now as the deluge lingered, taunting her, she wondered why the water wouldn’t just sweep her away. It would be so easy to let go and give herself up to the current pulling her under.

Looking up, she could see the dark clouds part when a light appeared in the distance. Help had come to pull her out of the turbulent water. She would be alive, but she didn’t know if she would live. She was carried on the back of her savior after he chased the storm away. She cowered in the shower hoping this time the water would ease the ache that threatened to smother her. If only her rescuer could have been there a little sooner. Now, the dark clouds would forever be with her. If only…. A phrase that would eternally haunt her.

Others would notice that her smile was hollow, and her eyes lost their brilliance. This was her own personal agonizing abyss she had plunged into. She didn’t know if she had the strength to climb out. Again she had to fight. The storm had passed but left her shattered and scarred. Her friends were there fighting alongside her, but they never saw the depth of her mourning. To have once held such light, and then have it snuffed, was almost too much for her to bear.

Eventually she could stand once again, often finding someone to lean on. Most days for her became relatively clear. Her loved ones could go back to their lives now that she had her footing. She couldn’t let go of the dark skies always seemed to loom in the background. At night, under the cover of darkness, they would once again revisit her in a torrent of emotion. She would never tell those that love her about her struggle. She couldn’t tell them she feared the quiet of the moonlight. She just wanted to find a way to wash away the stain that was left behind. She knew it was time to let go. But this time, she would let go and grab onto life again.

*****

She watches the water crash against the rocks below as the tears continue to come. She knows that it’s time she found her peace. She needs to let go of her fury over not seeing the storm coming. There were no answers for her to search for. It was herself she was looking for the whole time. She looks up as the sun split the clouds and fell upon her face. She feels its warmth like a comforter on a cool night.

Out of her pocket she pulls all of the evidence of that stormy night. Finally she lets go. Newspaper articles, pictures of her battered face, and pages of her journal drift down to join the crashing waves below. She is left to stand alone with the sunlight once again hitting her face. She always did look beautiful in the sun.

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