Stranded by Tom Wallace

For all the months we spent together, there were so few words spoken between us.  One day, you were just there and I loved you straight away.  There was no hesitation – no need, really – for an exchange of life stories, or explanations of who we were or where we came from.  You just took my hand and looked me in the eyes with your serious smile and I was immediately captured.

It was that long hot summer of heatwaves and thunderstorms – the summer we were both deciding what to do with our lives.  We met up each day, went somewhere quiet – the woods or a remote beach – and just lay in each other’s arms.  It was difficult for me to remember even who I was.  It seemed like a safe cocoon that we shared, protected from the world, and nothing else mattered.

One day, on a lonely pebble beach, we were caught by the high tide.  A storm came over suddenly.  Rain pounded the shingle of the beach and the sea crept ever closer.  It was a maelstrom of water, thunder, waves and wind.  We clung together, drenched, but deeply happy.  Stranded in the storm, we were brought even closer together.

The clouds parted and the sunshine returned.  We lay down to dry.  The tide turned and we were able to walk back off the beach.  I think it was our last day.

No words again, just a feeling that we must part.  I don’t know where you are now – I don’t want to know.  I don’t even need to know.  For how could we ever communicate through words on a screen?  How could what we had together be reduced to such nonsense?

So I’m alone for now, stranded yet content in melancholy.  Perhaps there will be another – I’ll know them if I meet them.  We will be lovers, for however long or short a time given to us.  Until then – no trivia, no nonsense.  To be alone is just as pure a love.  I’m no longer afraid, thanks to you.  We are stranded, either way, but stranded without fear.

Tom describes himself as an author and illustrator and his work can be found online at various sources, posting as abtw777. He is also the proprietor of ‘Art for All’, purveyor of free books, illustrations and off-grid buildings! Original artwork and print copies of his books are distributed from outlets like ‘Little Free Libraries’. Most of his writing is non-fiction and the subjects addressed are philosophy, spirituality, politics, climate change and the peace movement.

Photo by bhuvanesh gupta on Unsplash

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