The Boardwalk Muse: A Short Story

Improved Essays
The Boardwalk Muse

I followed the ancient, rickety boardwalk through the rows of corn that went to the ends of my Earth. The early summertime dew had a perfume of light magic that hung in the air like the fireflies that danced in and out of my vision. Pounding against the decrepit boards, my bare feet were getting tired from the running I was doing, but I couldn 't stop now. John was waiting for me near the ocean at the end of the lane, our little spot.

Nothing more than a puny fishing hole, our "ocean" was a special muse no one knew about except me and John. Wandering home after school one day, I was fourteen and he was fifteen when we first found it. Through the years, this shelter of sorts became the regular meeting place for me and
…show more content…
Marry me?" John finally let out after a long cone of silence, filled with the symphony of crickets, frogs, and cicadas, "I 'm finally eighteen and I 'm ready to get out of here. I have a little money saved up and a map to anywhere you want to go. I just want to be with you. I 'm tired of sneaking out here to see you. I want you to be mine and only mine. I love you, Jen, and I can 't stand another day without you. I 've been thinking about this ever since we found this place way back when. Let 's get married right here and be gone in the morning!" Exclaimed John, talking faster and faster. A smile spreading across his face the more he thought about what he was saying.

I was stunned. My emotions seemed to project onto the symphony of insects and reptiles because their volume seemed to increase and become even more dissonant than they already were. Terrified, elated, shocked, and everything in between, I suddenly burst into tears. All my life my mother told me no one would want to marry me, that no one would love me. For the longest time, I believed her. Now, she was wrong; and when I wasn 't there cooking breakfast for her tomorrow, she would know. The cycle in which she was determined I would be stuck, was finally

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