Faé sat down on the slab of concrete decorating the corner and settled in to wait. She hated waiting. Patience was one of the virtues she lacked.
She had always hated waiting in any way, shape, or form. But looking at her you would never know this, she always had an outward calm, but INWARDS?! Inwards, her mind was going crazy. The real reason she hated waiting was because of her mind. If she was not distracted then her loud musings, the sleeping beast awoke. Her mind became a loud maze of thoughts that she quickly got lost in. She never found the middle of the maze where a zen fountain probably awaited, he would even settle for finding her way out.
She always kept busy watching a movie or reading a book when she had to wait. But she had left her phone back at home because she had not expected to wait when her aunt sent her on this errand. It must have been the urgency in her voice that made Faé dash out of the house without her phone.
Faé went everywhere, with her phone. No kidding, she took her phone with her to every single place she had to be. Even the toilet, especially the toilet.
She knew that she could always race back home to get it but it felt like a waste of time. Plus, she knew that her aunt would be full of questions about why Faé was back sans what she had been sent to do. And what would she say?
“I'm not done I just came to get my phone. Because I hate waiting.” Faé mentally snorted after she said the thought of the words.
She could see her aunt's reaction clear as day like a scene from a movie. The slash of her lips as her smile turned into a frown. Faé would probably smile or chuckle awkwardly then race to her room to grab her phone and race back to where she was supposed to be waiting. Scolding herself for coming back all the way. Nope, best wait.
Faé yawned as the tiredness she tried to keep at bay swept through her. She should have slept as soon as she got home in the afternoon. She should have not pushed it until later, because needed all the sleep she could get. She had to be up late into the night today and worse still she had to wake up as early as five am tomorrow because school was back in session. Work started again tomorrow, no more going back to sleep after turning off her alarm.
She sighed and stifled another yawn that besieged her as her mind began whispering. She hated being alone with her thoughts unless she was imagining a story. She tried to coral her thoughts but like spooked wild horses, they refused to stay calm. So she gave up on corralling them and redirected her mind.
She slowed her breathing and closed her eyes. The breeze nipped at her bare arms, making her wish she had grabbed her hoodie on the way out. But she hadn't expected the front stoop to be this windy, just like she hadn't expected the wait. The area in front of the house was surrounded by trees, the evening wind played with them sending a chill breeze her way.
The breathing technique seemed to work. Her breath was coming out in steady puffs and her mind was almost calm. It was in that state of almost calm that she heard it. Waves?! She could hear the waves crashing on each other.
If not for the concrete under her feet, Faé would have believed that she had been magically transported to the beach. Sand under her feet, the salty spray of the water on her face.
She almost opened her eyes to find out, if she hadn't been transported to a beach. Maybe her angels had ferried her from her perch on the concrete slab to the sandy beach. But she refused to disturb her enjoyment.
Her active imagination took over and soon Faé was skipping along the sandy path, leaping out of the path of the waves, and swimming in the beach. More like drowning, her imagination was confused. Imagination Faé must have forgotten that Faé didn't know to swim. She chuckled mentally as she remembered that imagination was not reality.
But seriously, what was going on? Why was she hearing beach sounds in the concrete jungle?
Faé popped her eyes open with a frown. Yep, she was still in the concrete jungle. She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing again, once her mind was quiet the sounds began to filter in again and she was back on the beach.
Reluctantly she dragged her eyes open again, she just had to know where the sound was coming from. She looked around the compound, examining the front stoop. Her eyes snagged the palm trees that spread their fronds over the fence. Could that be the cause? Does a palm tree sound like the beach? She couldn't remember.
Maybe it was the other trees on the compound. Or was it the breeze rustling through them that made them sound like that? Faé had zero ideas. She gave up her investigation, folded her chest over her lap returning to her comfortable position.
Who cared where the sound came from anyway? She was going to focus on the fact that it came and it was doing its work. It was calming her otherwise anxious heart. She was going to consider it to be a gift from God and enjoy it. No need to start investigating the source.
Faé returned to her concrete beach, ferried to the peaceful spot by the sound filtering away the noise.
The sound began to lull her to sleep when another sound interrupted her bliss and brought her back to reality.
“Customer?!” the person she was waiting for called. “You don sleep?”
Faé dragged her tired eyes open and turned to her ‘customer’, her fake smile painted on her face, ready to reassure him that no, she was not asleep. Contrary to what it looked like.
As soon as her customer was assured that she had not dozed off on him, he went back to his work and Faé went back to her concrete beach.
Now if only she could figure out a way to carry the beach with her always.
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