#489 Water Seeks its Own Level- Maxine Clair
The town is on flood alert and James volunteers to haul
sandbags down the levee for the Civil Defense crew. He likes the idea; it’s
exciting. He doesn’t tell his wife Pearl where he will be, but she’s used to
that. James is a wayward soul with a history of dreaming about getting out of
town. He likes the chaos and unpredictable storms.
“It felt good to be rushing around in the streets. This
desire to be unfettered in the world came down on him sometimes like rain on an
arid field. He drank it in, imagining the streets of Chicago or Harlem, places
he had never seen.”
He failed every time he tried to leave town, crawling back
to Pearl. He wanted to do something big, something dangerous. Almost drowning
while hauling sandbags opened his eyes to the harsh truth of life. Like a
raging river, something shouldn’t be tested.
“The gulf between the kind of life he sometimes imagined and
his life with Pearl seemed as uncrossable as a wild river.”
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