The Search (Part Two)

Last Saturday I shared with you the beginning of a story I wrote for StoryADay May. The challenge is to write a story each day in May using the prompts given you by various authors. The prompt for my story entitled, The Search, began with incessant banging on a cabin door; the character throws a souffle into the oven and opens the door to find only three antique brass keys and a Bible (my substitution for a tarot card). So without further ado...

The Search (Part Two)

Over the next two days, Harper tried to relax as well as come to some conclusions about the things that had been bothering her lately. "How do I fix everything in only a week?" she whined dramatically. It wasn't true, everything was not terrible, just predictably, mind-numbingly the same. She longed for something new, something inspiring. Up until now, she'd skirted the life she had dreamed of having. Sure, she had planned on working, but she had wanted a career, something she could sink her teeth into, give her life over to. She'd found a good job. "Aim low, you'll never be disappointed," she thought. Even if she'd chosen to be a career wife and mother, she would have been okay with it. Perhaps what she was really missing was being a part of something. She had a few friends, not that numbers are important, but they had their own lives. They had careers and families. They always included her in their barbecues and nights out, but as wonderful as they were, she never felt as though they connected. They had so little in common. And her parents, well, they lived so far away and had their church friends and all of their neighborhood things. For people approaching their sixties, they amazed her with their energy. They didn't simply get involved because they believed they had to, they got involved because they were eager to; they couldn't stop themselves from getting out there and helping others or just meeting others. "And here I am, sitting in a cabin trying to figure out my life," she thought.

The keys, once again, caught her eye. "What on earth could they open," she thought, "and why would someone insist on dropping them off here to me?" She began looking around the room again, and almost unable to stop herself, she rose to her feet. Her eyes panned the room as she began to walk slowly as if tracking something. Just then, there was a knock. The old cabin door jumped with the five or six knocks that followed.

"Hang on!" Harper commanded. "What is going on around here?" she mumbled. She reached the door just as someone shouted, "Sorry!" from the other side. Harper cracked the door open a bit. "Can I help you?"

"I am so sorry to bother you," the stranger said. "I had heard someone was staying up here in Danny's old cabin, and I stopped by the other night to talk to you. My name's Lucy --" 

"Wait, you were here the other night, banging on the door?" Harper interrupted.

"Yes, I'm sorry, sometimes I'm a little intense, don't know my own strength. Besides, these dry old cabin doors tend to amplify the sound on the inside. I stopped by to talk to you, but just as I was waiting for you to answer, my phone rang. One of the kids had fallen, and I needed to get home right away. I hope you don't mind, but I heard you were up here doing a little bit of thinking and thought a Bible might help. I'm sure you've already got one, but I dropped it off just in case. I didn't mean to run off. Anyhoo, I stopped by today--"

"Oh, hey, wow. Um, I really appreciate the Bible and all that," Harper interrupted again. This Lucy was quite the talker. "But, um, I really don't do the 'religion thing.' My parents are pretty good at it, though; I'll leave it up to them. Um, so, uh, what's with the keys? You dropped off keys."

"Oh, you found them! Praise Jesus! I stopped by today to see if maybe I had dropped them. Those keys go to some of my father's files and his desk. Daddy was a preacher in this area for years. He retired several years ago, and his eyesight isn't what it used to be. I usually take something from his writings up to the home to read to him. He would have been so disappointed to find I'd lost them."

"Wow, okay. Here I was thinking they opened something around here. I've been trying to figure it out. Here ya go." Harper handed over the keys. 

"Thank you so much!" gushed Lucy. "I don't mean to pry, but how's the rest and reflection going?"

Harper was taken aback by the question at first but found herself wanting to answer. "I guess, not quite as good as I'd hoped. There just seems to be something missing in everything. I just haven't been able to give my devotion to any one thing and come out feeling as though it has been worth my time. Have you ever felt that way?"

"Why, as a matter of fact, I have. If you wouldn't mind putting on some coffee, I'd love to tell you how I found purpose in my life."

Again, Harper was taken aback. All this talk about purpose and devotion. She was beginning to think she'd fallen into some commercial for a self-help seminar. But, she'd come up here for answers and it was answers she would get. "Sure," she said, opening the door.

Lucy made herself st home on the overstuffed chair. She picked up the Bible from the table and began flipping the pages.

"Do you really read that thing?" Harper asked, grabbing mugs from the top shelf.

"I sure do! There is nothing in life this thing can't teach me."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be disrespectful, it's just that it's all never made much sense to me. All those 'thee's and 'thou's. And how long ago was it written?"

"It's okay," reassured Lucy. "I felt the same way you do when I was growing up. I didn't understand it, I failed miserably at following it, and I gave up. That is, until one weekend of soul-searching when I was in my late twenties. About your age, I guess."

"I appreciate that, but I'm thirty-three," Harper chuckled. "Guess I'm even having my mid-life crisis at the wrong age."

"I don't think it's a mid-life crisis," Lucy said. "I just think you need some answers -- we all do, and once that coffee's done, maybe I can show you where I found mine in the pages of this wonderful Book."

Harper surprised herself, "Okay, I guess. Let the search begin."