John tried the channel again. No luck, which seemed to be the par for the course. Team Kilo had mysteriously lost contact with the voice and this solar storm was preventing all communication back home. Not much to do but wait.
Reaching across his desk, John picked up his sun globe, a gift Cait had picked out for Ariel to give him for this mission. The globe glowed warm to the touch, animated by captured solar energy from Rubion and Triste. Sparkling with light his mind drifted to the sparkle in Ariel's eyes when she gave it to him.
John closed his eyes and let the warmth from the globe take him back. His bags were already loaded in the Carain and there was that awkward emotional sense of wanting to leave (to get on with it) and wanting to stay. The feeling was one that unless you had first hand experience, simply couldn't be described. One felt torn between duties, between family and hearth and god and world. It was a feeling no words could salve. He had long since stopped trying to explain to Cait and she had learned to stop asking.
John walked back into the house, standing just inside the door, and like owls in the night, two sets of quiet eyes starred back at him. Then as children are wont to do, Ariel broke the tension with a giggle as she skipped toward him, her hands held behind her back. He had bent down on one knee, his eyes on the same level as hers and the contagiousness of her smile gave birth to his own.
Then, without words, she held the globe out to him, her eyes full of expectant anticipation, longing to join her love with his, to seal a bond known between a father and a daughter. He did not disappoint. Holding the globe in one hand and Ariel on his knee in the other, he hugged her tight and looked at Cait with wet eyes. "It is the most magnificent gift I have ever gotten," he had said as he felt her little arms tighten with joy around his neck. And he meant every word.
Categories: Story, John Discovery, Caitlin, Ariel
19 comments:
Click on the image to fully appreciate. For you Erin, see me after class; and bring that chair. You know the one, the one that makes you smile. :-D
Beautiful, simply. :-)
I like so much the scenes from John's home, always so full of love and caring for each other, appreciating one another. Here we have John taking the time to give his daughter the reaction that she deserves for her gesture and more importantly, it comes naturally. She'll know that too and regardless of how many times he would have to leave her along the way, it's quite obvious that she will never be in any doubt of how much he loved her. What wonderful memories she will have as she grows up, so secure in the limitless, unconditional love of both parents.
Again, and I'll get on to that in a bit (comment from below), here we touch upon the balance that exists between John's homelife and his position in his working life, both of which are parts of him. The question of importance has no place here, this is just who he is and were one to take either one away from him, Cait and his daughter or his job, he would not be the same man.
This is perhaps my favourite fractal of the very many outstanding ones that you have been publishing over at Trebuchet, and I like so it's place in this chapter.
Nicely done, poppet, x
The fire of John's love burns bright in the need to fill the gaps and doubt that come with absence. If anything, he overcompensates in an attempt to make up for being gone. His love is also driven in part by fear, the fear that she might not know, that she might misunderstand why he has to leave, may believe he is leaving her, and so there is a desire that burns in his eyes and an intensity to his love that she reads in the touch of his hands and the caress of his eyes. And she knows.
As always my dear sweetest one, thanks for such lovely engaged comments. :-)
Happy New Year to you too, sweet man. :)
Like a breath of fresh air, so good to see you Aggie. Sending you all my love, hugs and kisses and wishing you a wonderful 2007. :-)
Yesterday I began reading from the beginning of the story all the way up to this one. It was so good to read it this way, like picking up a favorite book. A strange feeling, to read sections I thought I had never read before only to see that I had--I had commented on them. Startling. Like seeing myself as a different person. Added to a feeling of coming "home" though. I think I told you that it feels like your blog is a place more than words on a page and the atmosphere everyone breathes is love. Now what a wonderful thing it is you are creating!
Oliviah, I think you are the first person to make the effort to go back to the beginning and read the whole story. I cannot begin to say how honored I am that you would make that effort. I couldn't ask for a better New Years' gift. Thanks you Oliviah.
As for this being a place, I like that idea and I suppose I see it that way too, a place to come to be home, to be at peace and to be with love and joy and peace and compassion. Of course, I have been blessed with so many wonderful visitors who, I think, really make this a special place. I would like to think they see this place the same way you do, and I know some of them have said as much. And, for that, again, I feel deeply humbled and honored and thankful.
Oliviah, you are to me such a beautiful soul and you will always have a home away from home here. Love, hugs and kisses. And Happy New Year!
Happy New year to you and you family, Tree.
Thank you DJB. The same to you and yours my friend. Really like the work you've been doing of late.
Unconditional love, it speaks clearly on this entry :-)
Happy New year
Happy New Year Pkelley.
Leigh, I think you're right. I hadn't thought of this chapter in this way, but now that I do, I like it a lot more. Thanks for sharing. :-)
I am loving seeing this side of John, the man and the family. Awesome. My heart goes out to them all. I know this mission is important but I wish they could be reunited for a weekend or a day.
He'll be home soon. I hope. :-)
I've spoken many times of The Story being a gift given, shared, as here, as the brooch, as the folio, as the book of letters, just as they, it is real, it is timeless. This story though it comprises many themes, it's underlying messages tell of the beauty that exists in your heart, mind and soul. Such a beautiful thing you do in sharing it with us, those who have read and are reading.
Most importantly will read. :-)
Sweetest, again, thanks so much for so many wonderful comments of late as you've been rereading the story. I've arrived home safe and sound, at least for a day and a half. Although I have not responded to all your latest comments, I have read them all and in a blogosphere that seems to grow darker by the day, your presence is the light in a distance window that keeps hope alive and so I place one foot in front of another, one at a time.
As I reread some of these chapters I see so much I would rewrite, cleanup, delete or just recraft with a bit more skill. In this chapter, there are segments that are wonderful and segments that make me cringe. LOL
Still, that these chapters can have the effect on you that you describe makes me smile. However dim or distance that light, I still see it. For that, I say thank you. You are one of a kind. :-)
Entirely my pleasure as I think you know, and it is a genuine and complete pleasure and there is no need for replies, not least since we did all that first time around. :-)
The comment was not exclusive to this chapter in particular, though I loved it. I was reminded reading it of other chapters, of a common theme and all that it says about the person that writes with such vividness and knowingness.
I working on a couple of lanterns, I'll let you know if I manage to construct them properly. :-) Be the change one wants to see, such a statement must apply to blogland also, don't you think.
Enjoy your time at home and take care when you travel out again. Love and hugs to you.
You are correct. I am simply weary from the burden, of fact or expectation I know not.
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