Reality's Escape: a collection of short stories

Mama's Special Blessings

blog.reedsy.com

The immensity of the sea rolled against her eardrums, resonating somewhere in her soul. The sky pulled her up, up, back into the air her lungs craved, but she pulled herself farther below the surface.

Wren opened her eyes. The brine stung at first, but it was always worth it.

Streaks of light pierced the greenish-brown water, always flickering and moving; but the focal point in her view, as it had been for the last four-and-a-half years, was her daughter.

Eleanor had her eyes clenched tightly. Her little legs were wrapped around her mother's knee to keep herself under. Wren adored the sight of her little girl for another second. Then Ellie released her hold on Wren and kicked for the surface as bubbles erupted from her mouth. Wren let herself emerge too.

Ellie was sucking in oxygen between giggles and the occasional cough. "Let's do it again!"

"No, I think we've done enough, little mermaid."

"Come on, Mama, please?"

"No, you're getting tired. Here, get on my back, and I'll give you a sea horse ride back to the shore."

"I'm not tired!"

Wren maneuvered the little arms around her neck and felt the legs settle around her waist. She started paddling gently toward the shore. "And Daddy will be home soon. He worked hard, and he'll be hungry. We need to cook him supper."

"I'm still not tired."

"And we need to think of an idea for tonight's story!"

Eleanor's response was cut off when a wayward beach ball bounced off her head. The shouts of "Sorry!" accompanied by laughter and splashing announced their arrival to the congested shallows. Wren let Eleanor down off her back, and the two splashed their way between the brightly-clad, shouting children up onto dry ground.

They collected their towels, tramped through the hot, crumbly sand to their vehicle, and headed homeward.

Wren took the ground beef out of the sink where she had let it defrost while they were at the beach. Ellie, freshly showered, had dragged a stool to her spot at the island and watched her place the meat in a pan. Wren switched the heat on, then turned to her daughter. "Did you think of an idea for our story yet?"

Ellie scrunched up her face, then she lit up. "What about a mermaid, Mama?"

"Sure!" Wren took a tomato and a head of lettuce out of the fridge and placed them on the island along with a cutting board and a knife. She pushed it all in front of Ellie, who picked up the knife. "Remember, be careful, Ellie."

"Of course, Mama. Now tell the story!"

"Ooh, let's see..." Wren opened a pack of tortillas and put one on the warm flat top. "Well, our story doesn't start with a mermaid."

"Why not?"

"I don't know; do you want to tell the story?"

"No."

"Okay then. Our story doesn't start with a mermaid. It starts with a human boy named... what should his name be?"

"Umm..." Ellie popped a slice of tomato in her mouth and scooped the remainder into a bowl. "Oh! His name should be Peter."

"Peter it is. So, Peter was walking alongside some cliffs one day. He was very high up, and he was looking down over the edge at the waves. These waves were way bigger than the ones at the beach today."