PURSUIT: A Novel – 47: Goodbye

Swan Lake, Monday Morning, May 8,1989

The warm breeze of early spring blew strands of hair across her face. The park tucked in the center of campus had provided a break to nap under the shade of a sprawling beech tree, or to toss Frisbees across its expansive lawn, or to rest on the park benches scattered throughout the crisscrossed paths to campus buildings, dormitories, and Old Towne. But now it was deserted. The exodus of students left the beauty to the ballerina. She shook her head to loosen the strands to flow in the wind. She strolled the winding path through flower gardens that intertwined with patches of woods that opened to reveal the glassine pond of their first rendezvous.

He twisted a blade of grass between his teeth, one arm back, the other rested on his knee as he sat and gazed at the swan that glided across the water.

She called out to him from the path, “You remembered.”

“How could I forget?” he said into the wind that carried his response.

She sat alongside him and placed her neck on his shoulder and laced her arms around his chest. “Lips that parted mine.”

“Lush and sweet.” He nestled his cheek against her lips.

“Relished in the probe of your tongue.”

“We held that first kiss forever.”

“A memory etched in crystalline glass.”

“Like a ballerina?” he breathed. Foreheads nestled, soft slops caressed.

“By a diamond of love.”

“We kept our vow.”

“We’re more than our passion.”

“God’s love is pure.”

“Holding us together on opposite sides of the world.”

“No distance will separate our spirits.”

He turned into her arms as she did his, their embrace drawing in their breath together. He gently held the nape of her neck in his palm as their lips melted together, their last kiss a purposeful crescendo of passion and love intended to seal their fate through the passages of time.

The lone swan spread its wings and beat the air for liftoff from the mirror of the sky, a reflection of heaven on earth.

† † †

Lawrence Municipal Airport, Monday Afternoon, May 8, 1989

“One-way to Miami with one stop at Atlanta, checking two bags, boarding begins in five minutes at Gate C7. Enjoy your flight and thank you for choosing Pan Am.”

At the announcement, Jerry looked to Christina. “One-way sounds so permanent.”

“The return trip isn’t within the timeframe for a round trip airfare.” Christina sighed. “I’ll be home for Christmas, sweetheart. Have faith that God will finish what He has started.”

“I’ll be waiting for you.”

“Wait on the Lord, for your trust is not in me, nor yourself. In God we trust. God spoke His destiny for you into your being and likewise into mine.” Christina placed her open hand on his chest. “You will never be without Him because God’s Spirit lives within you.”

The promises, the goodbye, the international travel, the unknown of placing life in God’s hands, a déjà vu of the departure of his high school love, the two of them inseparable with their arms around each other’s waists as they walked towards the security checkpoint. He was still a cowboy, an untamed heart, although her presence in his life reigned in his natural instinct to buck against authority. He had not resisted God since his lightning experience and acquiesced to the power within him that was transforming a heart inflamed with lust to a heart that loved God first, a fire in his spirit that overcame his burning flesh, the secret to keeping their vow of purity.

He pulled her close for a lingering kiss, soft and delicate, one that he would feel for several minutes afterward. Sensitive nerves ignited as two lips brushed against one another.

“I’ll be waiting for you,” he whispered as their lips parted. He opened his eyes, just as did hers, as they anchored into each other’s soul.

Oceans apart day after day
And I slowly go insane
I hear your voice on the line
But it doesn't stop the pain

If I see you next to never
How can we say forever

Wherever you go
Whatever you do
I will be right here waiting for you
Whatever it takes
Or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you

I took for granted, all the times
That I thought would last somehow
I hear the laughter, I taste the tears
But I can't get near you now

Oh, can't you see it baby
You've got me going crazy

Wherever you go
Whatever you do
I will be right here waiting for you
Whatever it takes
Or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you

I wonder how we can survive
This romance
But in the end if I'm with you
I'll take the chance

Oh, can't you see it baby
You've got me going crazy

Wherever you go
Whatever you do
I will be right here waiting for you
Whatever it takes
Or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you
Waiting for you

† † †

Songwriters: Richard Marx

Right Here Waiting lyrics © BMG Rights Management US, LLC

† † †

Copyright 2017  © Jeff Cambridge

Excerpt from PURSUIT, a novel by Jeff Cambridge.

Author of transformational fiction—

Real characters in real life drama that tell the story of their transformation to become more like Jesus.

To read the scenes sequentially, begin with

“PURSUIT: A Novel – Prologue”

Located in the May Blog Archive. Click on the episodes and enjoy.

This episode is pre-published. The book will be available Spring 2018.

Your comments are welcomed and appreciated. Check one of the reaction boxes below, write a comment, or email me at lightbycambridge@gmail.com.

This novel is a work of fiction. Any references to real events, businesses, organizations, and locales are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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