Logan's Story: A Sand & Clay Prequel by Sarah Robinson Read Free Book Online

lifted a particularly heavy box and piled it into the corner of an eighteen wheeler then headed back out onto the warehouse platform to collect more.  Logan only had Sundays off and he had spent all of yesterday at home asleep or with his parents.  His mother had had a particularly painful day, so he had played his guitar and sung to her as she laid on the couch cuddled against his father. Laura loved his music; anything that gave her time with her son. She had laid there, watching him with total adoration.  
    Mickey had never been a huge fan of music. He was gruff and loved contact sports, anything that was physical, hard work, and could toughen a man by beating him down.  That was how Mickey’s father had raised him and it was a philosophy he had stood by all his life until he had met the soft and sweet, Laura. Then the accident happened while Logan was still so young, and every bit of the Laura he loved disappeared with her ability to walk.  For so long, a depression resided over the house, with all attempts to remedy it falling short.  
    When their son first showed an interest in music a year or so later, Mickey encouraged it because those were Laura’s genes shining in his son and he couldn’t think of a single problem with that.  He had so desperately missed that light in Laura’s eyes and now they were glowing through Logan’s.  So, Mickey learned some basic guitar chords and taught them to his son and he worked extra shifts to afford music books and a ratty old acoustic guitar purchased at a yard sale.  Like a moth to a flame, music suddenly became the epicenter of their household.  
    Logan played from the moment he got home from school until it was time for bed and as time went on, Laura would ask more and more for Logan to come play for her.  Without even realizing it, the music became tradition in their household.  After dinner, his parents could gather in the living room and Mickey would softly caress his wife’s hair as she leaned against him, the first signs of affection and happiness that she had shown since the accident.
    At first they would critique Logan and help him improve, encouraging him to try more challenging pieces, but as he entered his late teen years they only needed to listen.  He was brilliant and the music calmed Laura in a way that no other music could. Her chronic pain subsided and her insecurities took a back seat.  All that mattered was her son and how much he loved her through his music.  On the days where her pain was higher than usual, he would sit cross-legged on her bed and sing to her while playing the old acoustic guitar.  
    Logan thought of yesterday as he was loading another box and worry flooded his stomach, like a brick weighing him down. Days like yesterday were happening much more frequently than before and although he tried to get answers out of his father after every doctor appointment, Mickey said nothing except that everything would be fine. But everything was not fine, and Logan could sense it in every fiber of his being.  Doctor visits were closer together now, her pain was higher, and her energy lower.  Mickey could live in denial all he wanted, but Logan knew that things were getting worse after over a decade of paralysis.  
    Logan was working a longer than normal shift today and would miss dinner since he needed the extra income.  He was the one who paid the bills and balanced the check book and with all the extra doctor visits and increased medications, it seemed that the amount going out far out shadowed the amount coming in. He needed to go to New York.  He knew that, he knew he had no choice.  
    How do I tell the guys? Logan thought as he stretched and walked over to the water fountain for a cool refresher. He had been dodging their calls and had left his phone at home to give himself an excuse for why he wasn’t’ responding.  He knew that he had to see them at some point, so he planned on texting them once he got home to meet him at