Joyce’s Reviews > Bluebird Gold > Status Update

Part of the acknowledgments from the author:

This is a story I have wanted to write for years. In fact, I started it in 2022 but had to set it aside for other commitments. I am a firm believe that stories are meant to be told when the time is right ...

...some important lessons for life. That people could change. That we could forgive those who gave us scars.

SPOILER?

Ilsa decided to keep the cabin. She'd lost enough of Ike already.

Doctors didn't deliver bad news in the lobby. No, they saved the bad news for private waiting rooms. This was where they told people that the love of their life was dead.

Cosi & Spencer had teased me last night for using so many crackers, but I hated the sensation of slurping. Ever since I was a kid, if there was soup, I'd add so many crackers that it became a stew.

She walked ahead, clueless to the fact that she'd just snatched another piece of my heart. Another week, maybe two, she'd own the entire thing.

The world went silent. No birds chirped. No trees creaked as they swayed. No pinecones clacked against limbs as they dropped to the ground.

It was the most peaceful moment I'd had in years.

A peace I wouldn't have found in a city. A peace I'd known as a kid, sitting on this dock with my father.

A peace that came when you were home.

It smelled like bacon and burnt toast. Someday, I was going to have to teach my son how to cook.

You chop wood when something's wrong. Your father was the same way. And when I asked him what was wrong, he'd say nothing. So many nothings that I had five years' worth of firewood by the time he died.

When was the last time he'd done this? It was getting harder and harder to remember the lasts.

The last time I'd tucked him into bed. The last time I'd picked him up and carried him on my hip. The last night I'd rocked him to sleep.

If this was a last Saturday morning hug, I wanted to savor it.

Was that my last Ilsa smile? The twist in my chest was so fierce I couldn't fill my lungs.