Lena marched on, blinded by her strand and determined to reach the far end of the beach to climb up the cluster of rocks and face the angry waves head on. She gave no mind to the changes around her as she struggled to take control of the tempest within her. Her anger had been justified, she kept telling herself. He had no right to decide what she could not wear. It was her body and she could choose how much or how little to wear. She forged ahead brushing off white-tipped waves and clingy sand. Light diminished and sparkles from the water disappeared as storm clouds began to roll in to cast a dark shadow over the island.
Placing one step after another, her feet dug into the wet
sand, while the edges of her long skirt dripped from its close encounter with
the constantly moving water. Reaching
the edge of the beach, she skipped over the gravely portion by placing her bare
feet one big toe after the other until finally hopping onto the first big
boulder of a cluster. She leaped between
rocks, skirted slippery moss, dodged the raging waves as they crashed and
sprayed as if determined to soak her.
She climbed head on, challenging the seas, the rumbling sky, and the
mighty rocks until a misstep, or perhaps it was not. A piercing shriek evaporated in the ocean’s
rage and thundering anger of the sky.
Sitting down on a solid rock, Lena held her left foot in her
hand. A sharp, rusty object partially
stared at her, its other half inside her foot.
She screamed, unmindful of the ominous grayness around her that was
gradually fusing into darkness. Digging
deep within her she found a morsel of strength and used it to pull the offending
object out of her foot. Her previous
emotions forgotten, her differences with her man suddenly becoming
insignificant, she slid back to the beach, rock by rock. Hobbling on one foot she started her trek
home. Less than half-way up, her legs
submitted to the wet sand as she crawled her way up the beach while the storm drew
closer above and around her. Flashes of
lightening signaled her to move along, to rush home before the hungry waves
start to gnaw at her and the vast ocean consumes her. She dragged her injured foot, her trail of
blood washed away by the over-efficient waves.
To be continued…