You can read Part 1 here
Jack Summer had lived in the village near the house at the edge of the cliff since he'd been born on a cold bedroom floor at home.
He'd entered into this world early by seven days. And even then quick enough for his mother to not reach the nearby bed, from the warm bath she'd lain in, for his birth.
A child more full of wonder and curiosity had yet to be met in the once restful village. Jack's laughter could frequently be heard ringing heartily throughout the town from as far as the hills and cliffs, as he adventured through the landscape and lost himself in the magic of nature and his own imagination.
The weather had little effect on his travels. Jack could be found wandering outdoors in sunshine or rain, oblivious to the temperature or moods of his surroundings. Always seeking. Always moving forward.
Ever warm with the anticipation of discovery. Ever cool with the confidence of finding his way home.
Jack's exploration of the local territory had widened every year of his life.
To the point that, by the time Sally Jansen quietly appeared in the distance at the house near the edge of the cliff, Jack would be away from his home for many seasons at a time.
But to his home he would always return.
Jack the man, like Jack the boy, had only ever been able to live according to his own true nature and follow his own heart's true desire.
The folk in the town had long since stopped inviting him to events, social occasions or town hall meetings. And gifts from unmarried young women, of home made breads and bakes, had dried up even a while back before then.
Jack's name was hardly mentioned and neither his absence nor his presence caused much of a stir any longer. The folk of the small village had grown to accept his coming and going without bitterness or celebration at his departure or arrival.
Perhaps when life is more simple, people and their ways are able to remain so more easily as well.
Four long summers and three longer winters passed before Jack Summer returned from his travels, to his home in the village, near the house at the edge of the cliff.
And when he returned, Sally Jansen did not even know it.
Sally Jansen had no idea that Jack was back in the village because since he'd seen Sally Jansen walking in solitude to the edge of the cliff one day, later in the afternoon than was warm enough to be comfortable and just before the shadows after sunset made it difficult to find a way back, Jack had begun, for the first time in his life...
...to sit and wait silently and unknowingly himself.
But Jack didn't even realise he was quietly waiting at all.
He'd been wandering along the shoreline late one afternoon, considering a swim off the old jetty, when he first saw Sally Jansen looking down from the cliff near the house at the edge of the world.
Jack was the only person in the village who still used the jetty to dive off and swim in the wide open waters it led to. Nobody knew where the legend had originated from or when it began, but the beach was believed to be haunted.
When belief replaces seeking, things become the way things are. A slow transition from possibility to unquestionable fact that sometimes makes us forget to question things anymore at all.
But there was once, long ago, the whisper of a man who was lost to the sea bordering the secluded white beach. A man unjustly accused, and sentenced for life, for a crime he had never committed.
A man who had leapt from a passing by prison ferry, to swim to a desperate reclaiming of freedom.
Jack Summer only had to see Sally Jansen looking down, silent and unseeing, from the edge of the cliff once, to be lulled into quiet waiting himself.
And Jack Summer walked to the same shadows, beneath the cliff with the endless horizon, every day on from that moment forward...
to sit and wait silently for Sally Jansen to look down, one more time.
So I did it again and somehow posted this before it was ready and even onto the wrong community! I have no idea how that happened.
Deleted and redone here, but if you find something floating around please do let me know *rolling eye emoji and imagine being a bot??
Thanks for your reading time if you made it this far! 😅❤️
I talked too much again this week and may have visited more folks on this card...but I suck at admin, right?
Also... I'm visiting the rest of you on the card this weekend.
You've been duly warned 😄
