Running Northwest Read Free

rain had stopped for the most part, the heavy fall wind still blowing hard. As he sat staring across the road to the spot where Sarah’s body had been, a single, lonely, final tear ran down his beard-covered cheek. He had sat there for the last hour or so, a thousand thoughts going through his mind, a hundred feelings pouring from his heart and soul.
    Quietly he said, “What am I going to do without you Sarah?”
    After a few minutes, he stood up and walked slowly and silently towards his pickup truck. He blended with the shadows, feeling like a wraith as he walked, emitting sadness and darkness with every step fo rward. It was time to go home what was left of it. Knowing now it was just a place; Sarah had made it a home.
    Back at Thomas’ rented beachside cottage, there was more to deal with than the dinner that would not be eaten and the reminders of Sarah scattered all over the home. A small boy was there, asleep and being watched over by Thomas’ best friend Derrick. The boy was only five years old and unknowingly had just lost his mother in a car accident. As Thomas drove north back up the coast, through the silent and sleeping towns of Tillamook and Garibaldi, he wondered what to say to Daniel. How would he tell the little boy that his mother was dead? Thomas wondered what would happen next.
     
     
    xi
     

 
    Running Northwest
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

One
     
    Lying in bed before sunrise was one of Thomas James’s favorite things to do. It was late spring so the nights were warm enough to leave the windows open and with that meant waking up to the smell of the salt air drifting in from the early morning breeze, the sounds of the waves slapping and sometimes crashing against the rocks and the sandy beach. The gulls screamed at each other as they flew around in circles looking for some sea-life to eat. Somewhere off shore may be a breaching whale or two as they pass the coast heading north on their way home. A pod of dolphins or group of seals looking for some fish to eat could often be seen. All of it seemed to be slightly hidden by the mist that seemed to be present every morning and sometimes most of the day. This was the Pacific Northwest after all; it’s the way of things here.
    As Thomas lay in his king sized bed covered with a sheet and the head of very large Bull Mastiff named Layla draped across his stomach, he remembered how much he missed this place when he was back in Michigan. Oregon, specifically the Oregon Coast, always felt more like home to him. He always wanted to come back here and open a small coffee shop, and eventually he did just that. However, the life he had always imagined he would have had out here is not the one he got. Not that he could complain or would for that matter he loved his life now, he loved every part of it or at least the parts he had.
    Thomas rolled over to grab his cell phone and see what time it was. The phone was lying next to two framed pictures that he never took down. One was of him and his son Daniel and the other was one of someone else, someone from a past he had to leave behind him. It had been almost four years and yet sometimes as he lay in bed, slowly waking to watch the sunrise, he still forgot that she would never be lying next to him again. He did not have his glasses or contact s on so he had to squint to see, a disadvantage of getting older. It was 6:15 am.
    “Mondays,” he growled as he reached to pet the head of the large, heavy dog and then reached for his glasses with the other hand.
    “Well girl, we gotta get the other two up in about a half hour or so. Want to go for a quick walk before we get them up and going and make breakfast? We have school today you know.”
    His dog Layla jumped down off the bed and wagged her large tail excitedly. For some reason that Thomas himself could never quite understand he talked to the dogs he had as if they were people.
    “I’ll take that as a yes,” he laughed as he put on his shorts and a hooded