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| Conor Paolo from Submerged c/o tylershields.com |
Dry
When the water dries out I’ll know where I stand or hang. I know this as I move my hands carefully beneath their rope tied shackles. Carefully I lift my head backwards and hope that the rope around my neck will pull back with the ebb of water. Letting it happen is a matter of relaxing in the right position.
A thousand times over I’ve felt the cold water lap up neatly against the bottom of my chin with a false hope. The force of my own weight shoves back towards me as the water rises and rescinds. There’s a reason or two that have found me in an interesting predicament now and again but nothing could’ve prepared me for this. Both my arms bound above my head hanging beneath the dock of the bay with a noose around my neck. Tighter and looser the ropes dig in before releasing with the ebb of tide. One thing is for sure is that once the tide rolls out dry I’ll be sunk and left hanging by the neck unless I can relax.
“Miles Redfield there ought to be a law for the kind of man you are.” So says Zanrha Grey the only woman who ever walked out of my life more than twice and still knew me better than any other when she came back around.
If there’s one thing I know from spending my time with Zan was how much she liked to lay down laws.
And I did enjoy when she did cause I loved to break them.
Except this time around it wasn’t so much the law she laid down as it was her foot that said “No more.”
No more was what I should have said when I welcomed trouble back into my life instead of walking away. That Thursday morning out on the avenue by the docks hanging back with Charlie Black and Melly Abriga I knew there was nothing like trouble but I went along for the ride. I wanted to be in, so I was.
There weren’t any cops around when we boosted the old dodge, certainly no one looking when Charlie pried open the driver’s side door and Melly took a knife to the trunk. What threw me by surprise was the body that jumped up out of the trunk and grabbed a hold of my throat. There wasn’t time enough to react. Melly dropped his knife and jumped into the freshly running car that Charlie threw into gear leaving me with 6ft 2inches of terror with his hands wrapped around me and a look of pure hate in his eye. It can’t be happening. But it was. And so was I.
He wasn’t an angry man the fellow that handed me back my neck. His fate was sealed inside that car and I’m the one to blame for letting him out. Yet instead of setting me free, he gave me a choice on how to be dead. And it wasn’t what I might have chosen, but no one knows what trouble will hand you when you aren't clear about what you want. So with an agreement and a nod…
Smoothly I let this happen to me. I chose the noose around my neck. I wanted to have a betting chance and agreed this was a better way to end up than with a bullet through and through my skull. See most people want to know what’s coming for 'em, and I’ll be the first to say I’d rather not know. For every inch of water that dries up and drops my body, tightens the noose around my neck. My arms bound up tight won’t save me when the full force of gravity yanks downward on my body.
As I relax and give into the current, my body remains afloat while I let my neck loosen in hopes of shifting the noose. My mind continues to think of Zan and her words while my hands fumble to untie themselves.
“A law” she said time and time over again whenever I’d roll back home with a mess or two trailing behind me. To Zan it was purely infuriating that I could be so callous and not think of her when dragging another round of trouble to the door. But this time in the back of my mind I knew there would not be another round as the water takes another drop with my neckline growing tighter. It’s when the tightness takes hold that I realize floating won’t much longer be a problem as the slow drop into the dry will snap my neck without question. Taunting me the water laps up and back across my chin dragging and easing the rope in a tug of war for life. A war that will end in freedom either way.
Dry. For too many men it means something different. One man is clean from his addiction, another is flat busted, and for me it means I’ll be out options if I don’t break free.
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| Christa Allen & Conor Paolo c/o tylershields.com |
Resistance. If you resist the natural order, it can get a bit interesting. Still in one piece. Bruised, burned, battered yet nothing is broken tonight as I know now with certainty what I’m supposed to be breaking free from. And it wasn’t what I thought. Thinking of Matisse on the story. Another lost man from the series. And I am almost back at this work once more. Enjoy everything. Live, love and breathe. kisses. m.