Daisy Chains and Old Fords

Daisy Chains and Old Fords

I am the heavy weight contender, before the title fight. I am every school boy and girl waiting to open that results envelope. The klaxons are sounding and I’m just waiting for the bombs to fall. Sitting on that sofa, wringing my hands, a nervous chill ripples through me. The silence is deafening me.

Buzz! Just like that colour erupts into the world, flashing vibrancy into my eyes. Earplugs fall from my ears and I realise the sound has always been there, just in the background and now it comes louder and happier. The bombs drop, the envelope is torn open and the bell for the 1st round has rung. IT was as strange feeling, my mind raced faster than ever. Sweat tickled my spine, me eyes ached with the pressure in my being. The were so many stories to tell. So many faces to memorise again. What will they think of me? Do I look ok? Will they be proud of me? Will they think I’m failing? Will they love me?

Though my mind raced with a tsunami of questions, my body moved as if it we slowly turning to stone. My arms we leaden, my legs we immersed in concrete. Every step became exhausting. Every breath shallower and shallower. The panic threatened to over come me. However my love and the thought of seeing them again out weighed the judgement they might enforce upon me. My love for them forced blood through my body cracking the stone. My love was so strong I felt it pulse in my finger tips. I focused all of my attention on that insignificant white door. A door that was present in its hundreds all over this building. But this one was special this door, with its matt steel handle, and the lock that never worked held behind it my reason for living. My family.

Each step took an eternity, my eyes pierced the wood of the door, they burned a hole through it. Finally I placed the inferno that was my hand upon the handle of that insignificant door. I felt the sweat condense on the cool steel. This was it. All the planning, talking, it would all come together or fall apart.

I pressed eagerly on the handle, the workings of the lock clicked and the resistance fell away. The door slowly sung open.

The brightness of the luminously lit hallways dazzled me. It was like gazing upon the gates of heaven from the darkness below. As the pure light faded into a delicate hue. I saw them. The emerged from the ether. The first sound I heard was the laugh of old friends reacquainted. The first thing I saw was the warm smiles of reunited family. In that second that I observed them without them seeing me. I knew I gazed upon life in its happiest and purest form. I saw the face of genuine love.

Then I saw him, amongst the faces of old and new, I saw him. He was so different from when I last saw him. Physically he hadn’t changes. But his form seemed larger and stronger. I saw him carry weight in his shoulders now. I saw wisdom and the wear of the world in his face, but he still had that impish glint in his eyes. His hands looked like Dad’s. Then I realised something. Last time I had left, I left a misguided youth who needed his big brother. Now striding towards me was a man, who didn’t.

As we locked in an embrace that was three years overdue. I felt the windows rattle, the foundations of the building buckle as these two stars reignited each others colossal flames from one another, and roared into life for another lifetime. The others blurred, slowed and faded into the background. We released each other and I felt the colour return to my face, I felt myself stand taller and the fire in my soul pour into to world. Arms around each other we returned to the room, which now echoed with happiness, playful teasing and sweetest of all, laughter. I moved between them all sharing hugs that should have been shared long ago, heard stories that made me laugh, and we all drank until we were merry.

I saw in each and everyone of them the same thing. Something that only today that could have given them. Something that unabashed love of family could have bestowed upon them, it was light. Every word spoken, said “I’m listening to you”. Every drink drunk said “I happy in your company”. Every touch said “Let me share the weight you carry”. Every smiling face said “I love you”.

The klaxons faded. The results were read. The fight was over, and it all came together. 

Written by,
                  Daniel Elmer