Wishing on a Wave (Part 2)

Why should he have followed that path? Why should he have had to? Why cannot any man be happy? “God dammit, why can’t any man be happy?” He had never spoken aloud to himself, let alone screamed to himself. As a fragile pane of glass faced with a far more powerful force, the silence was shattered, and, of course, each and every member of his pre-maturely awakened family set out to find the culprit behind the terrible crime. He shrugged the episode off as a dream and slowly his family returned to sleep. None had any idea that the nameless man they nicknamed father had changed, that in one specific instant a door had opened and exposed a new path.

The next morning the man got up, kissed his family goodbye, and he left. As he drove past his normal exit for work, he came to the sudden realization that he was never going back. The laughter that followed was like music, the kind his mother used to play. It was a symphony for his senses, one only matched by the brilliance of Beethoven. For an instant he teased the idea of turning around, but then concluded that he could not, not then, not ever. It was in that moment that he became aware of how dangerous thought could be. “No matter now,” he thought, for he was finally going home.

An eternity had never felt shorter, for it seemed right after the man began driving, he had reached his destination. He took deep breaths as he reminisced of days spent dazing away. He saw sand castles, playful chases, and summer swims in the sun warm water as playful fish skimmed his feet. He recalled days spent laying in her lap, pretending to be asleep, yet actually wishing with all his hope to the waves to make the moment last forever. The shedding of tears had lost all meaning to this man, but it seemed at that moment it took on a new one.

He began his walk as he swallowed the last pill, leaving behind the empty canister. Usually he did not litter, but his mind was somewhere else that evening. The sun was becoming too heavy for the sky and night was almost upon him. “Maybe.” For the second time in his life the man spoke aloud to himself. He looked down as a small wave disintegrated into fuzz at his feet and smiled a genuine smile. “I suppose you just have to find it.” “Third times a charm,” he thought.

As the sun set it created a backdrop of light pastels, a sight more beautiful than anything the man had ever seen. While strolling down the darkening beach his next realization hit him, and he knew he had found his answer. His walk seemed surreal, all of his questions evaporated from existence, his mind finally free, and with that all of life made sense again. He knew and understood the world that day, and as he went to rest his head on the pure, white sand, he knew he was finally happy. His eyelids grew heavy, and he glanced heavenward, admiring the stars and beyond, all the while knowing that his search had finally come to an end. Then, as contently as any man ever had, he closed his eyes and, like he had so many times before on that beach, fell into a deep, dreamless sleep- only this time he never had to wake up.

A guy