Remember Me by Brian MacLearn Read Free Book Online

was over for me. I would never be with her again.
    I looked down at my wedding ring. It was a simple gold
    band; but it represented a love greater than any riches I could ever attain. The hardness of the rock I found myself sitting on was nothing to the sudden burdened understanding of the
    loneliness that would be my destiny. I sucked in my breath and fought back the sinking feeling of total desperation. I prayed for Amy to come and wrap her comforting arms around me.
    To sooth me, surround me with her gentle essence. I turned my face to the sun. I could almost feel her touch on my face. It was more than I could take! The bitterness of my predicament washed through me. Waves of anger, sorrow, and longing all converged to rack my body with chills and shudders. It was the most hopeless feeling of despair that anyone could ever imagine. My Amy was lost to me and nothing I could do would S 34 S
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    change that. I willed her to be with me, drawing on every sense of her that I had stored away in my very core. I remembered the last time we made love, still so fresh in my mind and on my skin. It was so full of promise and hope of our future together.
    I could feel her everywhere on my body, everything we had been. It embraced my heart and sent my emotions reeling. I cried warm tears of pain and fear. I cried tears for a lost love, and all the hurt Amy would endure—living a future without me, and facing the life of unanswered questions of where I went. I cried tears for my utter helplessness.
    I was lost in my pain and had no realization of time. My mind seemed to be in a frozen state—fighting to come to terms with the here verses the now, the where and when. Amy was here, but she was not my Amy, nor would she be my Amy…
    ever again. I saw no salvation, no happy colored rainbows in my future. I couldn’t stop the idea of suicide permeating my thoughts. I snorted loudly and with total, inner disgust. I violently chased it away from my mind by shouting out loud,
    “Never!” I would not, could not travel down that road. I wiped my blurry eyes and stood up. My rear was numb from sitting so long on the hard rock. My decision was now made, at least for today. With nowhere else to turn, I would have to include my parents, regardless of the potential outcome. In all of the fantasy stories I’d ever read, when someone gets a second chance they always find true happiness in the end. I laughed! True happiness would be something I would never receive again; it was gone for good, as was my hope. Reality’s cold kiss set in and I began my soulless walk towards the highway.
    I reached the end of the gravel road. If seeing is believing—then maybe in this case it was my not seeing that was the true reality. The major four-lane thoroughfare which ran north to the Twin Cities and south to St. Louis was gone. Back was the old run down highway of my yesteryears.
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    Brian L. MacLearn
    I looked north towards Cedar Falls and could make out
    the old water tower, bright blue and unencumbered, far away and high on the hill, overlooking the southwest part of town.
    In the future, the tower had been revitalized and an exclusive housing addition would dramatically reshape the landscape of the hill around it.
    The man, Ed Patton, driving the 1977 Ford Thunderbird
    I was riding in noticed my expression. “You look like you’ve seen the Holy Choir son.” I couldn’t deny his assessment; I was totally blown away by the sight out the front window of the car. I’d forgotten how inviting the town had once been, not quite a large bustling hub of malls and auto dealerships, but still full of the promises of a growing and vibrant town. It was a great place to grow-up.
    I couldn’t tell Ed what was really on my mind, and I had no reasonable rationale to offer for the look on my face. I merely responded with, “Better the choir than the devil.”
    Ed was a large man in his early eighties and a self-proclaimed preacher at that. He burst out