Passion in Portland 2016 Anthology

by Anthology

  Shivering, she realized the rain had picked up.he had no idea of the time. She should have been deathly cold from the way she was shaking, yet all she felt was numb. She could hear her teeth chattering, even above the occasional crack of thunder, then felt relief when the flashes of lightning temporarily blinded her from the unending sight of that terrible black ocean between them.

  But there on the water, as her eyes once again sank back into the inky ocean, a single shining light bounced among the breaking waves. It was coming closer to her. She closed her eyes, wondering if the ocean was playing tricks on vision; like a forlorn maiden from a sailor’s song, waiting for her love to come back. But that light, it was still there, dancing on the water, coming closer to her, like some shimmering nymph. Perhaps she would walk toward it, become entranced by its seductive song, feel a kiss and become their lover. No! Only if it was Erik.

  She carefully listened for the song to begin, but could only hear the roaring protests of an angry ocean. And yet, something else, something man made. Sophie stumbled up and leaned forward to better hear, yes an engine. It was a boat! A small rescue vessel.

  ***

  Erik had never felt so cold and sick, and yet alive, as he did at that moment, bouncing on the choppy waters near the coast of Depoe Bay. They had left a map and night vision goggles in one of the life boats. He had hesitated for only a moment, looking out to the looming storm with the eyes of a lifelong sailor. He could be lost at sea and never see her again. But as he stood on the deck of the boat, he knew he would be forever lost without her in his life. Without another thought he had lowered the boat to the ocean, breaking away right as the sirens had begun to wail, confident that no one would shoot. There would only be a report of a man overboard, jumping to his death rather than the humiliation of a court-martial.

  Now as he held tight to the small rudder, night vision glasses on, he almost laughed and egan to dance as he spotted a house that stuck out from the others in the infrared light. Was it a little pink house on the shore? And what was that light, dancing along the sand? Could it be her …?

  ***

  Sophie’s practical side kicked in, the one that had been raised on a coast, and she had run to grab an old lantern. Surely this was madness to be out in a storm such as this. She began to wave her arms, shouting to lead the boat to shore.

  A flash of lightning lit the sky. It was pure insanity to be out on the beach and yet, something, some feeling, kept her rooted to the spot, waving her arms. Another bolt of lightning pierced the sky and for a moment, an outline of a body, waving back at her, could be seen. Sophie took another step into the freezing waters, right as a particularly violent wave crashed against her legs and her balance was thrown.

  Plunging into the freezing dark depths, hearing nothing but rushing waves and fast moving currents, Sophie felt the drowning experience she had only imagined in the days prior. She fought to find the surface, her hair tangling around her, her clothes weighing her down, her lungs burning from the lack of air. Another flash of light and she knew, that this time, this was it. But she would die with him in her thoughts …

  She was yanked from her peaceful haven in a rough grasp, and she protested when she felt a hand slam into her back before her lungs filled with blessed air. The blinding white light that had transferred from the heavens to her mind, expelled itself from her head, which began to pound in protest to its recent bout of shock. As her ears drained of the tangy salt water, Sophie swore she could hear a string of curses in Russian…

  Finally, a hand reached out to brush her hair from her face and her eyes adjusted. Erik. There. With her. She was pulled roughly into his arms, while his cold lips touch her everywhere.

  “Erik?”

  “Yes, yes, my Sophie!” He sounded as though he were laughing and crying at the same time, just as she felt like doing herself.

  “How? What? Are you really here?”

  “Da! Yes, love. It involves a wonderful old man and a nautical chart stowed on an orange dingy, along with a very pink house …”

  “You are here! Oh, Erik.” She finally recovered enough to shower him with kisses as he continued to laugh and give her his huge, charming smile. Soon enough she found herself swept back into his arms, locked in a passionate kiss she hoped would never end. All too soon the kiss was interrupted by a flash of lightning. He pulled her under his arm and they began to walk back toward the house.

  “What is it Erik?” She questioned as she pulled her head from his chest to look at his smiling face and soaking black hair.

  “I have a very serious question for you Sophie.” He touched his nose to hers and she couldn’t help but match his smile, even as the tears still fell from her sea-stung eyes.

  “What? What could it possibly be now?” They had reached her porch.

  “Sophie, of all the gin joints, in all the world, why did you have to walk into mine?” She stared at him in amazement before the two lovers began to once again laugh. Despite their frozen wet, exhausted bodies, both felt as spry as children at the moment, reveling in the joy and laughter, the love between them.

  “You know one of these days, Erik, you’re going to tell me exactly how you managed to watch all these movies.” She turned back towards him as she opened the storm door to her house, opened her life to him.

  “Ah, Sophie. The power of West German tapes and smuggled Japanese VCRs. Come, I will tell you all about the great American movies I have seen. It might take some time, years in fact, perhaps a lifetime. A lifetime, together.”

  The End

  About the Author

  Kimberly Kennedy has always been a creative soul, bouncing back and forth between various crafts and arts before settling on writing. Being an only child meant creating her own worlds, full of characters that were a combination of people she knew and quirky qualities she thought more of us should have. She now lives in Denver, a real life romantic heroine, still trying to find love, one written word at a time. While she waits on prince charming, kissing a few frogs along the way, she's having a blast vacationing, writing, trying out the amazing culinary and beer centered landscape that is Colorado, loving the mountains, and motoring around in her little grey Barbie car convertible. You can find her online at www.kimberlykennedywrites.com

  Facebook: https://facebook.com/kimberlykennedywrites

  Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Kimberly-Kennedy/e/B00EH2QJPC/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1

  Website: www.KimberlyKennedyWrites.com

  Port in the Storm – Mary Crawford

  Chapter 1

  Sam

  AS I FLIP THROUGH MY mail and encounter a greeting card from my friend Jessica; I’m amazed by how much our lives have changed in just a little more than a year. Even when we were working together back in Florida, she was always one to find me silly whimsical stuff, usually related to my love of sci-fi television shows. However, this time, she is giving me a sneak peek of her choices for her wedding dress. We always joked that if we didn’t find someone to marry by the time we were forty, we would marry each other, but it looks like she’s beaten that deadline by a long shot. From everything she’s told me, Mitch seems like everything she’d always hoped she’d find. I’m really happy for her. Really. Still, all of her happy doesn’t make up for my fear that I won’t ever follow in her footsteps. I gather up all of my mail and tuck it back into my pack and resume walking toward the Max train.

  A couple kissing while they’re walking down the sidewalk nearly run right into me. I just shake my head at their completely oblivious state. I wonder if that will ever be me. Somehow, I doubt it. Women just don’t seem terribly interested in me. Oh, I’m great to hang out with. I’m a wonderful buddy, sounding board, and confidant. Sometimes, if I’m really lucky, they’ll cast me as the temporary boyfriend to scare away the guy they’re not really interested in. As far as the real thing, not so much. Of course, things would probably be easier if I could actually express my thoughts in a way that other people could understand without h
aving to repeat myself three or four times. I’m a smart guy. Actually, I’m scary smart. The kind of smart that they have special organizations for, you know the kind of smart that the teachers whisper about in the halls. The only problem is, most people don’t really know that about me because no one takes enough time to listen to what I say to find that out. Don’t get me wrong, not everybody’s like this, there are a few special people in the world like Jessica who look beyond my weird speech, my strange gait and my balance problems that make me look like I’m drunk — but those people are pretty rare. Far more common are the people who think that my cerebral palsy is somehow contagious and might affect their kids if they touch me in the grocery store or the teachers that thought that because it took me longer to get to class, I somehow must be stupid and needed remedial special ed. Most days, I try not to let all of these assumptions bother me, but on a beautiful late Spring day like today when the world seems all coupled up, I can’t seem to help but let my mind wander there.

  I guess in many ways, I’ve been pretty lucky. I actually have an employer who has a lot of faith in my abilities. In fact, I just got a huge promotion. I work for Heartbeats in Rock Jewelers; I started as an intern there when I became a gemologist out of college. Jorge was so impressed with my encyclopedic knowledge of gems that he kept me on. When one of the other stores in the chain showed signs of internal theft, he made me the manager of the store because he knew that I could run the business and determine the quality of the merchandise almost by sight. It’s been a really big challenge because, understandably, the current staff at the store didn’t want someone coming in from the East Coast to tell them how to do their jobs. I wasn’t offended by their attitudes because I am used to being the newcomer in many different situations. My dad was in the Navy, and I’ve been the newbie more times than I can count. I know how to ‘adapt and overcome’ as my Dad would say. It didn’t take me very long to figure out who the thieving sleaze ball was. She really wasn’t very careful — more greedy than smart. I’m not really sure why she would do that to Jorge because he’s really quite generous and in the long run, she would have been ahead just to walk the straight and narrow.

  I have to stop to adjust my backpack, these new forearm crutches are killing me. They have a different type of grip and it’s shredding the skin on my palms. Just as I’m trying to pull the sleeves of my sweatshirt down over my hands to afford me some protection, someone pushes me down from behind. As my head strikes a parking enforcement pole, I vaguely wonder if it’s the same oblivious couple I saw a few moments ago. I reach up to adjust my glasses on my face and the earpiece comes apart in my hand. I have the world’s worst luck. I just got these glasses. I move my hands to my aching head and notice a huge goose egg right smack in the middle of my forehead. “That’s going to be attractive,” I remark with a sigh.

  “Oh, I guess I don’t really have my land legs yet, I’m so sorry,” a voice apologizes with a slight Texas twang. “Oh Lord, look what I did to you, they’re probably going cancel my shore leave just to make me do paperwork.”

  Flopping my scraped arms down on my knees, I notice a torn spot on my new jeans. Damn, not another pair. I should just own stock in Levi Strauss. I squint up at her, as I remark, “No need for that. It’s not like I don’t fall a dozen times a day without any assistance from outside intervention. If you get your friends to give me some leverage to get off the ground, I think I’ll survive.”

  “Are you sure?” she asks, disbelief clear in her voice.

  “Positive. Seriously, some days I spend more time on the ground than on my feet. It was probably just a coincidence you found me standing when you ran into me. I wouldn’t want to interrupt your liberty. My dad was in the Navy and he always told me how much shore leave meant to him. Go enjoy your time with your friends.”

  “I really think you should let me file a report in case you’re hurt, it would be disastrous if you got worse and I did nothing.”

  “Really, I would feel much worse if you didn’t get to enjoy your time here in Portland. I insist. Welcome to Oregon, Sailor. Thank you for your service.”

  Chapter 2

  Taylor

  “YOU KNOW THERE ARE only so many ways you can artfully arrange things in a duffel bag, right? Besides, we have to wear our whites when we’re out in public anyway. It’s not like we can shed the Navy altogether and put on a LBD and heels and party hardy,” my best friend and bunkmate, Emily remarks as she sees me trying to carefully cram everything I own into my allowable bag.

  “Fine, so you have a point, Dodson,” I retort, wrinkling my nose. “Did you ever think about the fact that I may actually be excited to be back in Portland? I really loved the city — it is so cool. Did you know that they actually have a slogan, ‘Keep Portland Weird’. Is that not my kind of city?”

  “Actually, it does sound a lot like you,” Emily replies with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “Are you planning to knock down any innocent strangers on this trip?”

  “Shut up! It’s not like I meant to do it. I was lucky; he was so nice about it. Most guys would not be that nice. I was lucky he didn’t turn around and deck me.”

  “Tay, most people in their right minds would not deck you for bumping into them while you were taking a picture. I don’t know what kind of men you usually hang out with, but that’s not how most of them are,” Emily responds, shaking her head.

  “You couldn’t prove it by me. My ex-fiancé considered any contact that he didn’t initiate an offensive touching. Unless he wanted a roll in the sack at a random time in any random place, under any random circumstances, I wasn’t allowed to touch him for any reason; even if it was an accident. If I did, there were consequences to pay — usually followed by bruising the next day.”

  “…And you were going to marry this charmer, why?” Emily probes.

  “That would be the billion dollar question now wouldn’t it?” I answer dryly.

  “Come on, Taylor, you must have some idea—” Emily continues to push.

  I throw my hands up in the air and sigh as I answer, “I don’t know. I guess I thought he was the opposite of my dad. I watched my dad tear down my mom for years. I thought I’d found the opposite of Dad. When Reid Weber came along, he was thoughtful, kind and attentive. He seemed to like my quirkiness and accept it, which is something that my dad never did.”

  “What happened? How did he turn into a monster?” Emily asks with a look of concentration on her face.

  “I ask myself that almost every night. I don’t know if I just didn’t see the signs or if the signs weren’t there, but once he had the ring on my finger, it was almost like he underwent a personality change. The guy who was patient and understanding with me and thought that everything I did was cute, was completely non-existent. He was irritable and short and a few bricks shy of flat out lunatic. If I didn’t bring him his coffee the exact temperature he preferred it, he would grab the flesh at my waist and twist it so tight that I would have bruises for days. He was always really careful to do it where no one could see it unless I took my clothes off. Then, he would tell me, ‘I am a very powerful person at work, do you think that they are going to believe someone like you? A college student barely out of high school? Someone who’s had a traumatic past? Someone whose father killed himself from the guilt?’”

  Emily’s mouth is hanging wide open and her eyes are as big as saucers. “How did you end up in the Navy, surrounded mostly by men? Weren’t you terrified? I mean, for the most part we are trapped on a ship here with them. We have some personal safety training, but we’re still at risk.”

  “My fiancé was the dispatch supervisor and he was friends with police officers and fire personnel from three counties. They were at his beck and call. I decided I would be safer in the middle of the ocean with a boat full of strange men than I was in my own home. Besides, I figured that the military would teach me how to use weapons and to fight for myself. I never learned that growing up and it was about time for me to learn. I wanted t
o be able to finish my engineering degree and if I was forever running from Reid and his richer-than-the-Kardashians family, I was never going to be able to do that. I worked too hard to earn my grades in the chaos that was my house growing up to throw them all away because some guy who had an ego bigger than a hot air balloon felt the need to crush me because it made him feel bigger about himself. The Navy was my way to be safe. I’ve never really regretted my decision. Sure, training was tough and my DI tried to wash me out during boot camp because he thought that I was too much of a pansy to make it. Guess what? I’m still here and he’s not because he was caught fraternizing with other soldiers, despite having a wife and four kids. Maybe he should’ve concentrated more on his job and less on libido.”

  “Speaking of libido, it’s been years since you’ve been with your ‘own personal hell on Earth’. Since you’re here in Portland, which is like, one of your favorite places on the planet, are you going to let your hair down and live it up a little? After all, the last time you were here, you were tackling random guys down to the ground to get their attention — surely there has to be an easier way to handle it. I think drinking a few margaritas and dancing with a few hot guys would be the way to go. From what I’ve seen online, they’ve got the rugged lumberjack look down to a science in Portland; they’ve got the hot-nerdy-scientist look nailed too. You could probably have your choice,” she points out helpfully.