Author's Notes: This is the last chapter of the series. I have ideas for a "post-Hymns" era, however, so keep your eyes open for that. Thank you for reading!
The song featured in this is called "Here For You" by Good Co.
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What a wonderful day.
In the living room, the sun shines bright. Rays stream past baby blue curtains, and the nursing home's resident kitten is curled up on the daybed. She flicks her tail almost in tune to the music as the song finishes. The half dozen people in the room sleepily applaud, claps like soft, dripping rain- polite and grateful, even if tired from it being the perfect time to fall asleep like the little cat already has.
The piano player flexes their fingers for one last song before they retire, its chords soft and slow, like looking at yourself for the first time through glass so ancient it's turned yellow; another filter, another time, both long ago and very, very close. The musician parts their lips and glides five fingers over black and white keys as they bid adieu.
I don't know just what to do...
When all I do is run.
It's getting to be...so hard for me...
To carry on.
...He catches a glance as he walks by the open room's entry, seeing the flowers in a jug upon the piano and the ones outside as people in wheelchairs sit and enjoy the fresh air. He hopes, with time, so may he.
Henry died surrounded by loved ones, leaving behind a darling husband named Marvin and a beautiful daughter named Linda. That's what the old obituary says.
He has been dead for quite some time.
A man with red hair eventually has soft shadow fall upon his face- still a shade darker than the rest, but so much brighter than the darkness that used to shroud him. He looks better in it.
He looks different.
The music- the twirling sound of notes like you can hear a couple's slow ballroom dance- fades to the back of his ears as honey eyes blink softly and rosy cheeks turn away, dust motes like glitter in their slow descent to the earth-toned carpet as they continue to glide where he was watching.
And back and forth, one step at a time, the man feels light in the shape of windows fall over him with walls' shadows in between as he lingers down the hall with a rose in his hand.
I go out most every night...
But I only reach the door.
...This one. His orange hairline shines at a different angle as he tilts his forehead up to look. His lips pull back and he bites the inside of his mouth.
I kid myself...to think...
I could do more.
But someone promised him he can do more, and so he grips the doorway and peeks in, slow and wide-eyed.
The piano in the background picks up flight like a butterfly stuck atop an indoor vase, stringing in and out of wine glasses, table lamps, and couch pillows as it either tries to find the window or delays the end on purpose.
There's a silhouette inside, someone in a rocking chair looking outside at the birdfeeder outside their window. The fact that he sees her again is suddenly so, so real, and the fog lifts with a dose of reality like a shock to the heart; a hand comes to his face and he releases a soft gasp-
YOU ARE READING
A Rock in the River
FanfictionI've always asked what there was to live for after I died. My answer was to exist, to try to reach the unfathomable glory of the god whose dark, dripping smile loomed over us. Every waking moment in a life with no rest was filled with prayer- a pray...
