The Bench by the Sea

     Meredith Franklin is a single mother of two children, Cassia who is eight, and Tyler six years old.  One beautiful Saturday afternoon Meredith was outside planting new roses in her flower garden outside of their two story house.  They lived near the ocean in Maine.  She would stop often to watch the two children playing where their yard met the sandy beach.  After the passing of her husband, Meredith spent most of her time working on her current novel she was writing, and caring for the children.

 

     She was an interior decorator for many years, but decided to get away from the city to live in the house she grew up in.  Meredith wanted her children to experience what it was like to live near the sea, and have lots of room to run and play, and not be confined in a fenced in yard.

"Now don't you two wonder too far away, stay close to the house" Meredith said as she was sitting in the grass enjoying the cool breeze off of the water.

"Okay mom." The children continued playing in the sand.  

     Meredith planted a few more rose bushes and decided to go on the porch and give her back a break for a few minutes.  She watched the children walking up a small embankment near the house that had an old bench at the top overlooking the ocean.  She thought back to when she was a child going to that bench and would sit to draw pictures of the waves rushing in. 

     Cassia and Tyler were running around in the grass, getting closer to the old bench.  They looked up and seen an old man sitting there, smiling while he watched them play.  He was wearing an old white hat, a jacket that looked like he had worn it his whole life.  The old man had a pipe in his left hand; he would slowly raise it to his mouth and take a couple puffs.  His face looked as though he had been in the sun all of his life, wrinkled and like leather, his hands big and strong looking, and tanned the same as his face.  Cassia and Tyler walked up to him cautiously.

"Hi." Cassia said to him nervously.  Tyler raised his hand and waved hello to him with a big smile.

"Hello kids, come up here and sit with me, I will tell you a story to pass the time." His voice was deep and scratchy, like he had smoked and drank for most of his life, and it had an authority to it.  The children slowly climbed up on the bench beside him and couldn't take their eyes off of him.  He seemed nice enough, and they knew that they should not be talking to strangers, but there was something about him that made them feel safe, and besides they could still see their mother.  Meredith waved at them and was pleased to see them sitting so quietly on the old bench that she had enjoyed so much.

"So tell us the story please." Tyler said still smiling and sitting with his arms crossed, swinging his feet excitedly.  The old man rubbed his chin with his right hand thinking.

"Hmm, what story should I tell you good children?" Then he had a look as though he had just solved a mystery.  "I know, now children I used to be a fisherman." Their eyes lit up and opened wide.  "There was this one time, it was late afternoon, the sun was close to setting and I had my pole baited and hanging over the back of my boat.  She was a good vessel the Maria Leona was her name.  I was sitting there and heard my reel begin to buzz!" He made a buzzing sound toward the children and it made them laugh. 


"I grabbed my pole and pulled back and I could tell it was the biggest fish I have ever hooked, I fought this fish with all my might, it was then a storm came up and the rain started to beat down on me.  The wind howled and a few times I thought I was going to fall in the deep dark sea never to be seen again."

     The children were very much into his story, sitting on the edge of the bench taking in every single word he said.  "I fought this fish for four hours straight, when I got it up to the side of the boat it was a prize fish that any fisherman would be proud to have, a fish that only comes once in a lifetime."

"What did you do with it?" Cassia said softly with wonderment.

"I looked into that fishes eyes, that's when It dawned on me that this creature was meant to be free, free to swim all over the world through the blue beautiful waters and the deep dark depths, the things this fish has seen I couldn't bring myself to take that away.  So I cut the line and let him go on his way, us both having a better understanding of one another."

 

"I wish you kept it, I wanted to see it." Tyler said to the old man sadly.  The old man patted the boys head.

"Maybe you will one day son, and you too little lady." He said while pinching her cheek as she gave him a big smile.  "Now you two run down back to your mother, and be good children, one day I will tell you another story."  The two children thanked him and ran back to the house.  On the way there they began to play, pretending they were on a boat on the sea, pulling on a huge fish trying to bring it up to the sunlight. 

"What are you two playing now?" Meredith said as she was walking back to her garden to begin planting flowers once again.

"That old man on the bench told us a story about catching a fish in the rain and he just let it go." Cassia said.

"Yeah he just let it go." Tyler Replied.  Meredith looked up at the bench and seen no one there, they described him to her and she felt chills go down her spine.  Her father was a fisherman and when he was home they would sit on that same bench while he told her stories about his adventures at sea.  He had been dead for ten years.  Tears fell from her cheeks as she gave a big smile.

"Are you okay mom?" Cassia asked.

"Yes sweetie, everything is okay." She hugged them both.  "Everything is okay."

The End
By Robert D. Kiskaden