literature

Sail - Prologue

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Published: Feb 2, 2015

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Literature Text

"Mam?"
Elizabeth turned down the hallway into the room where her mother stayed, the natural light from the window coming in and lighting up the room. Out of the ten beds that were in there, only three were filled. She walked over to the left side of the room and sat on the edge next to her mother, who opened her eyes and reached out for her only child. Elizabeth took her hand and looked at her; she was weak, her eyes bagged from lack of sleep, she barely moved and slowly spoke.
"How are you, dear?" She asked.
"I''m good ma', how are you?"
"Could be better," Her mother smiled. Elizabeth brushed the hair off her mothers face and took a hold of her mothers hand again.
"I finally got a job," Elizabeth said, breaking the silence.
"Oh, my dear." Her mothers face lit up, she knew how long Elizabeth had been trying to get a job for, and at last, she had one. "Where is it?"
"The book store just outside town, you know, the one on Awol Street."
"The one that Herald runs?" Her mother asked.
"Yes. I went to see him today after class and we sat and had a drink, he asked how my job hunting was going and after I told him it wasn't going well, he offered me the job. It's only cleaning up and putting the books on shelves, but it pays enough to cover me."
"Owh, that's wonderful. If I wasn't in so much pain I'd leap for joy," her mother lightly laughed. Elizabeth smiled at her and put her other hand on her mothers.
"Will you be coming back?" Patricia asked, her happy expression sinking from her face to reveal how worried she was. Her mother took a deep breath and looked at her.
"I'm afraid not, I haven't slept properly in days, I'm struggling to eat. There's not much left for me, Elizabeth." Her eyes teared up as she spoke, taking her other hand and holding both of her daughters hands firmly. Elizabeth looked down at her mothers pale, almost lifeless hands; they were pretty much skin and bone, but felt as soft as always. "I'll be gone by tonight," her mother said. Elizabeth's head shot up.
"You mean this is the last time I'm seeing you?" Elizabeth asked, looking at her mother with concern. She nodded.
"At least I'm leaving knowing that you're in the good hands of Herald, and you can keep your first job down I'm sure," her mother smiled again. Elizabeth sighed and looked down at the floor, her mother reached her hand up and weakly lifted Elizabeth's chin up so their eyes comfortably met.
"Do not mourn because I am gone, but instead rejoice over the life I had." She rested her hand on her daughters cheek, wiping her tear away with her thumb. "I am always with you, Elizabeth, though you may not see it."
"And I with you," Elizabeth replied.
They sat in silence, Elizabeth watching as her mother relaxed in her bed, she finally looked comfortable and able to rest.
"Elizabeth?" She asked.
"Yes mam?"
"In the draw next to me there is a key, get it out please." Elizabeth opened the draw which was completely empty apart from a silver key, about 5cm big, slightly worn.
"This?" Elizabeth asked, holding the key in front of her.
"Yes. Give that to Herald, he will know what to do with it." Elizabeth put the key safely in her brown leather satchel which was still hanging from her left shoulder. "Until we meet again, of which, we will." Her mother smiled as Elizabeth faded from her vision as she shut her eyes from the last time and began breathing slowly.
"I'll see you later mam," Elizabeth stood up from the bed and slowly let go of her mothers hand. She leaned over and kissed her on the forehead, trying not to cry.

Elizabeth walked out the hospital room, looking back on her mother who spent her last few moments by herself as she had always wanted. Though her life had gone, another was about to begin.

YEAHH FIRST PART OF MY NEW BOOK.
Okay so this is the epilogue to what will soon be a new book, I'm also working on Breath of Life at the same time, and later another book called 'Radioactive' but I haven't done much planning for that. Yeah, the books are based off songs.

About about the characters:
Elizabeth - She is 22 years old, 5'8, gold/blonde hair which she always keeps in a long side plat and a side fringe, with pale blue eyes. She currently attends a University, studying fashion design and is on her last year. She was born and raised on Scotland, although her accent is not very strong. Her mother is Scottish and father is English. She's very indie, likes to wear her big green parker coat with a t-shirt or jumper, black jeans and boots. She always has that leather brown satchel on her as well which is slightly worn. She owns a Ragdoll cat called Jisper, a fussy little lady cat whose about 5 years old, she's had her since she was a kitten and the two are very close. She has no tattoos or piercings, and does not plan on getting any; she is also heterosexual, single and doesn't want relationships until she's out of university.
Elizabeth will spend most of her time reading, listening to indie music, doing photography, gardening or doing crafts. She doesn't have that many friends, she's rather independent and prefers the company of the plants in her room and her cat. She's never moved house before, lives in a small flat by herself (as her mother moved out to go into hospital) a few streets away from the book store where she works. In her town it rains a lot, it's also really cold, they're lucky if they see the sunshine.

Herald - Is 48 years old, on the larger side of things and has a little bit of a beer belly since he used to drink a lot. He's owned his book store since he was in his early 20's and has never had to close or sell the shop, it does enough business to keep him well and fed. Herald went to high school with Elizabeth's mother and were best friends, they graduated together on a Creative Writing course and she helped Herald with his book store until deciding to give up her job so she could get the time to work on her book. Herald is basically like the father and friend Elizabeth didn't have, the two have been close since she was 15.
He's 6'2, often wears shirts and trousers, kinda formal casual. He's bald apart from his short boxed beard (google that if you wanna know what it looks like,) which is dark brunette, his eyebrows are pretty thick too. He has his right ear pierced with a gold ring through it. He's single, never been married or in a proper relationship since he doesn't have an interest in them.

Elizabeth's mother - I'm going to keep her unnamed, she's a mystery character. She has long brunette hair, was 49 when she died. She did a lot of writing and drawing, being very good at it, and was very lonely in high school apart from her friend Herald, they both met during English as they shared a love for creative writing. </span>Elizabeth's mother always had her head in the clouds, she was a dreamer and refused to come back down to earth. Her only ambition in life was to own a flat and write a book, of which she did so she died happy. She does not have any tattoos and piercings and is divorced, also heterosexual.
Elizabeth's mother had Elizabeth when she was 27. She struggled giving birth so decided not to have any more kids.

Elizabeth's father -He left his wife when she was 8 months pregnant for another woman. The divorce caused Elizabeth's mother a lot of stress which was why there were complications with the birth. He does not see his daughter often but keeps in contact, seeing her every month or so. Elizabeth does like her father and has nothing against him, the two are slightly close but do not see each other often as he lives in England. He does not have any other kids. He is 50, heterosexual, on his second marriage. He doesn't have any piercings but has a Swallow tattoo on his left wrist with Elizabeth's name underneath it. He would always call her 'little bird' because she was fascinated by the Swallows that would fly around the town every evening.

Jisper - She is a Ragdoll cat, given to Elizabeth when she was a kitten. She's 5 years old and very close to Elizabeth. She likes to stay indoors and sit on Elizabeth's desk. Jisper is very proud, neat and friendly; she'll greet anyone who comes in the flat and loves to be cuddled and pet. She'll often paw at Heralds beard, he doesn't mind, he thinks it's pretty cute. She wears a thin red collar with her name tag on it, which has Elizabeth's contact details. Jisper will sit and wait for Elizabeth when she goes out, sometimes she'll go with Elizabeth to Heralds shop; she'll then sit on the shops counter, waiting for Elizabeth. Herald always keeps a bag of cat food under the counter and lets her help herself to it. She'll never over eat and is a healthy cat.

(C)All characters and book belong to me, you may not use or upload anywhere else without my permission.

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bananafight

Edited Feb 6, 2015

the title sail immediately got the song playing in my head. Awol street made me sure that this had something to do with it

Sail - Prologue

Deviation Actions

Literature Text

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