We join Sarah as she makes her way through Fayetteville, New York:
Modest ranch houses lined North Burdick Street across from the shopping center. Several of them stood in defiance of Reconstruction Solstice and were splendidly decorated with Christmas lights. The postage stamp front yards of the homes featured nativity scenes and Santa in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. A fifteen-foot-tall pine tree in one yard was strung with red and green lights and featured a lighted silver and gold star at the top that managed to stay attached during the gusts of wind.
The owner of another house had been the sound tech for False Walrus on their final tour. On a flatbed trailer with a plywood backing and roof he had set up a sound system with two speaker columns, each comprised of a 15” woofer, a 12” mid-range, and a horn for high-end. From an amplifier and mixing console in the living room he pushed music out at 1,600 watts while the lights arrayed around the outside of the home blinked in synchronicity with the songs.
The ending stanzas of Audio Adrenaline’s hard-driving version of “Little Drummer Boy” blasted from the speakers as the four passed by on the other side of the street. Then, in stark a shift of mood the gentle piano riff that begins Mannheim Steamroller’s “
Stille Nacht (Silent Night)” floated into the air in defiance of the breeze.
It was the second time that day Sarah had heard the recording, and in response her tear ducts became tiny crystalline springs. Once again images played on the reels of her mind as she remembered childhood Christmases and how much her dad loved the song.
Her feet continued to move her toward the destination, but her mind, heart, and spirit were detached and floating. She recalled the brown Teddy Bear her parents gave her for her fifth Christmas, sporting a red heart on its left chest with LOVE embroidered over it in white lettering. She named the bear “Baby”, and when alone she would play “house” and care for the plush animal as though it a pet for her dolls.
She was unaware of the UpTack Security SUV pulling alongside...
UpTack Security could only mean trouble! Will Sarah continue to be detached and floating, or pulled out of herself back into a stark, bitter, and fearful reality? Get Time: A Wayfarers Story in Kindle or paperback on Amazon
