Free Write: The Prayer

Writing Exercise #8

This is a Free Write. I have an idea in my head and I need to let it out. It’s less story and more description, probably. These will be infrequent but they do happen from time to time!

If you have ideas for Prompts, Crunches, Sprints, Relays, or other writing exercises in the future, please leave them in the comments! If you would like to write your own take for this exercise, please comment with a link so that I can see what you wrote and support your work, maybe even share your version with my subscribers. Please let me know if you have any thoughts, comments, or constructive criticisms as well!

Enjoy!

Whenever I go to the docks, it seems to be night time. Maybe I only think about it at night, maybe it only calls to me at night. But I am here. Waiting.

While I am waiting, phoooo what to do, what to do. Ok so the docks, they are dark. It’s really one dock, one big one any way. There’s some others for smaller ones but it’s the big one that I like to go to. It’s on the east face of the island, I leave home and all the roads lead towards it. I climb down the stairs carved into the rock by people long before me. I always walk to the very end of the dock, and I sit on the edge.

When the tide is high, I let my feet dangle in the water. Other days, I just look over, sometimes I will throw things in the water. The important thing, I am told, is that I am here.

I am waiting. I am not perfectly certain what I am waiting for. I understand that it takes focus, but whenever I come down here I can’t help but think about everything going on back home. My school work, my chores. My friends. That thing my brother said to me three weeks ago that hurt my feelings. That thing I said to my friend that made him laugh. That awkward interaction with a cashier.

I shake my head. I don’t want to think about those things. I come down here to relax, and to wait. I look to the horizon. I think instead about what would happen if I saw a boat, or saw a ripple, or someone told me a boat was actually coming. That would make all this waiting worthwhile, right? It would make it as if I was actually waiting for something.

Yet, I know somewhere in my bones that I am waiting for something. I am waiting for someone. I don’t know when he will arrive, or in what way. I just know that this is the place. I just need to be here, and wait for the time.

I lie down on the dock and look at the sky. It’s beautiful. In the deep dark of night, you can see all the stars; you can see the long arc of the milky way. I see a shooting star dash across my vision so fast that I question whether or not I actually saw it. I choose to believe I did. The thought makes me smile.

I look at my watch. It’s late. I am tired. He didn’t arrive today. I know he will eventually. Maybe I’ll come back tomorrow. I’ll spend less time thinking about everything on the island. Try to, anyway.

(460 words)

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Ivan Aivazovsky, The Brig Mercury Encounter (…) (1848)

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Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy! Come back next week for another writing exercise!

God bless!