I walk on a sandy beach. Waves are rushing in, foamy, submerging my feet in ice cold water and leaving again every few seconds… I cringe every time they come but keep enduring it because it is a refreshing awakening after a day of stale emotions. There are thousands of broken shells at my feet, and my eyes keep searching for the whole ones. The sky is dark grey today and feels heavy, the way it does before the rain. I breath in salt air and admire the energy of the vast ocean.
Ouch! Something small crunches under my foot and a sharp piercing sensation suddenly makes it throb. I lift it up and see red blood spilling out quickly. What the hell? A piece of paper is lying on top of sea shells, among shiny pieces of wet glass. Message in a bottle?
I pick it up and look at it for a while, without taking in the words because the handwriting is exactly like my own. The paper is yellowed with age, and the ink has almost faded. It must have been in the ocean for decades. There are only two words: “Take it”. Take it? Take what? I put the paper in my pocket and start heading back home.
I wake up and go to the kitchen to make breakfast. The note from yesterday is on a table. “Take it”. It’s silly, but I can’t stop thinking about it – the handwriting is strikingly identical to my own. Take what? What does it mean?
A doorbell rings. I open the door and see my neighbor Mark – a young, good looking guy with black bushy hair – is struggling to hold a white-and-brown puppy that’s trying to get away from him.
“Hi Sarah. Umm… My mother’s dog had pups and she brought this one yesterday as a gift. I told her I can’t take care of a damn dog. I hardly have time for my friends! Or my pretty neighbors…” He winks at me. “Anyway, she insisted it will be good for me to have a companion.” He rolls his eyes and gives me a pleading look. “Do you want to take him? You are gonna love him! It’s a boxer.”
“Umm, I don’t know anything about dogs Mark, I can’t help you out with this one, sorry.”
“Oh ok. I guess I’ll keep asking around.”
I sit down to eat my breakfast and the paper is staring at me. “Take it”. I don’t know why I’m so fascinated with it, maybe because I believe in intuition, and right now it gives me a strange vibe, probably because of the handwriting. It looks as if I have written the note myself. “Take it”. I repeat the words in my head, trying to connect it with anything that is going on in my life, anything that would make sense…
“Mark!!!!!” I dart from the chair and run downstairs to a lower floor and ring Mark’s doorbell like mad. “Please be home!”
He opens the door and looks at me incredulously.
“Uhm, hi Sarah.”
“Hi. I changed my mind. I want the dog.”
A wide smile breaks out on his face and he looks relieved.
“Great! Puppy! Come here little guy!!!”
I take him in my arms and carry back to my apartment. I’m going to call him Message…
It has been a week, and Message and I has gotten along great. He is very affectionate and loves attention. I enjoy walking and playing with him. Today I’m going to take him to the beach for the first time.
I haven’t seen Mark since the day he gave me Message. I knocked on his door several times, trying to get some advice about the puppy, but no one answered. Poor Message would be very lonely there indeed.
We are just about to leave for the beach when I hear loud voices in the hall. I open the door and realize there are a lot of people on the floor below, where Mark’s apartment is. I close the door behind me so that Message doesn’t escape and come down to see what is happening. There are firefighters.
“What is the matter?”
“There has been a fire. Thankfully it didn’t spread beyond this apartment. The neighbor next door called us right in time.”
I feel terror gripping me, my head swims – it is Mark’s apartment. I stare at the open doorway with eyes wide in shock. It looks wrecked with flames. The walls are blackened, and there is a stench of melted plastic.
“Where is Mark?” I ask quietly, afraid to hear the answer.
“Don’t worry Ma’am, no one was home. We just called the owner. He left for work early this morning, and the place was empty. It’s a good thing he didn’t have any pets. A lot of damage though. Hopefully he’s got insurance…”
“Right… Ok.” I breath out in relief, shocked.
In a daze, I move up the stairs; dread is in me, afraid to think what could have happened. I walk in and Message runs up to me. I sit down on the floor, take him in my arms and press him to me in a tight embrace. My happy little puppy. I kiss his head and he licks me and wiggles away. As I think about the note, disbelief settles upon me and I run frantically to the bedroom drawer and take out the message. Is it all a coincidence? Who wrote this note? Did I?? Unable to comprehend what had happened, I just break out in tears and thank the paper for finding its way to me. I cry for some time, confused and overfilled with emotions. Finally, composing myself and accepting the fact that I will never know where the message came from, I fold it in a tube, the way I found it, and put it away back in the drawer. I wipe the tears and yell:
“Message, you want to go to the beach?”
A year later…
I walk on a sandy beach. The waves are rushing in, foamy, submerging my feet in ice cold water and leaving again every few seconds… I cringe, but Message is delighted; he keeps running away from the waves and back again, jumping awkwardly over them. I smile. His head almost reaches my waist now. I lift my foot to look, with gratitude, at the mark, left by the broken glass a year ago. There is a small white scar on my hill.
I take the yellowed old paper with the message in the faded black ink out of my pocket, closed up in a new glass bottle, and throw into the ocean for the waves to claim it…
Perhaps one day someone will find their Message…
Thanks for reading my story! As you might have guessed, the message in a bottle represents intuition - the inner wisdom and knowledge we all possess. If you enjoyed this short story, please follow my blog. Your thoughts and comments are welcome.
07/01/2016 at 2:31 am
I really enjoy this short story.
It’s profound and brilliant with lots of twists and turns.
You are an excellent superior writer.
I’m glad you found my blog. 🙂
Otherwise I may not have found yours.
This story really packed a wallop for me personally.
The series of circumstances that led to the saving of Message.
Intuition and wisdom.
I’m looking for intuition and wisdom and a miracle these days.
I’ve been searching for a job now for 18 months since January 2015.
I finally landed one the first week of this month June much to my joy.
And then they let me go after 3 days because the boss figured I didn’t have what it took to be a telemarketer (you were supposed to make 3 sales a day and after 3 days, I still hadn’t made a single sale although I was just beginning with no real training program there for starting telemarketers).
Needless to say I was crushed.
Now I’m busy fighting off depression being at the same place I was last month- without a job.
So I’m waiting for a message in a bottle to arrive or my ship to come in these days.
Because it costs money to live (food and rent) and it’s hard when one doesn’t have a job and income coming in.
I was quite cheerful at the start of June- that’s when I wrote my series of short stories about Belvedere that you seem to be enjoying.
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07/01/2016 at 11:44 am
Hi Dracul!
I’m glad to hear that my story resonated within you and thank you for the compliments. Also thank you for sharing your situation with me. I am sorry and sad to hear that such circumstances found you. Don’t get discouraged. I am a believer in things happening when they are meant to happen. Perhaps this is an opportunity to look at the situation from a different angle. You are obviously a creative person, maybe there is something else you need to be doing? Did you try writing for magazines? I think many people would really enjoy your Belvedere stories. Even if you don’t feel joyful these days, poor your heart into whatever you are writing because a lot of people, such as myself, also enjoy deep and reflective writing. You are not alone, there are many people who can relate to you. You are a very good writer, so no matter how you feel, keep writing! And I hope you will find a job that suits your personality. By the way, I also tried telemarketing once, and they let me go after a few days because I really sucked at it… I am not by nature a sales person, I am an introvert and like to keep to myself often. But they expected someone to come in and be a star. Well, I don’t have any regrets because it wasn’t who I am. Don’t forget: it can’t always be bad, just as it can’t always be good. Life always changes.
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07/01/2016 at 11:28 pm
Yes, I think that’s my problem.
I’m basically an introvert which makes me suck at sales as well although sonehow it does make me a good writer.
I was a journalist back in the Canadian province of Alberta- which really isn’t a creative side of writing but it gave me a start like it did for Hemingway.
I have applied for newspaper jobs here in Vancouver, British Columbia but they don’t seem too interested in my résumé.
Are there many magazines left that publish short stories?
I remember as a kid growing up, there were all kinds- mystery, detective, science-fiction, fantasy.
But you don’t see too many in magazine stands any more.
The Internet seems to have killed off fiction story magazines unfortunately.
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07/02/2016 at 12:19 am
Wow that’s pretty cool that you worked as a journalist! Yeah, we introverts tend to have good imagination and be creative and feed off of that, rather than the outside world. We find our own world more interesting lol. As of magazins that publish short stories, I don’t know about Vancouver, because I live in New York, and we have a few here, although not many… There is a book called “Writer’s Market” which is a really great resource I would recommend because it gives a list of magazines in different categories that accept freelance work, pay rate, conditions, and other info. Most of the magazines are based in U.S. but I don’t know if that matters, you can probably email them your stories from anywhere…
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07/02/2016 at 12:21 am
What kind of journalist work did you do? Just curious:)
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07/02/2016 at 2:16 am
I worked as a reporter and pretty well covered all beats from arts to education to science to business to law to politics.
I worked for 2 different weekly newspapers in Alberta as well as a provincial newsmagazine called Alberta Report.
Yes, I’ve heard of Writer’s Market Magazine as well as Writer’s Digest.
So you live in New York eh?
I have another writer friend in New York called Lin Ross.
He publishes novels and poems under the name L.M. Ross.
I met him at an another blogging site called Journalspace a dozen years ago and we’ve kept in touch ever since.
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07/02/2016 at 10:54 pm
It sounds really impressing, all the work you have done. I’m very glad that I met you here. Your blog is really great, and thank you for being so friendly and openhearted! It is nice to be able to feel as a part of the wordpress community and to meet some genuine and supportive people like yourself.
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07/02/2016 at 3:10 am
This is most interesting and wonderful blog of which my dear friend Christopher via aka Dracul Van Helsing plead me to go and check as he thought you are a wonderful writer yourself.
And yet, yes, I am surprised just as he was, and it is one of the beautiful ‘Message’ in the story and ‘Message’ the cute pup and a deep message that left us all to be open to our faith and instinct. I understand fully of your story here as I am a mother of seven kids and always to be put the trust fully in my own faith and instinct, and listen to it carefully as trying to understand even the unknown.
Life is then are full of surprises and we are here to uncover it all.
(✿◠‿◠)
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07/02/2016 at 10:46 pm
Thank you so much for your kind words and for reading my story. I’m really glad that you like it, as it was my hope that people would understand the message of the story that I was trying to convey, and you guys did. I’m really glad that I met Christopher because I just created this blog about a month ago and it is really encouraging to meet such friendly and supportive people like him and yourself. Thank you!
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07/03/2016 at 5:47 am
You are so welcome, Natasha.
Chris and I, were long old friends since we meet at another blogging site called ‘Xanga’ and due to bankruptcy problem, like any other blogging website, Chris & I, moved away from there …
We met at another blogsite named ‘Blogster’, but the problems were the same as it was at Xanga where we faced and met trolls of all kind. I really hate that … I was lost for a year and writing leather journals like I always did before I did try to come to WP because I know that also, Chris is there … He was indeed, very, very happy I came and since then I got stuck here and WP became my new home …
Christopher has always been there for me since the beginning when those trolls attacked me just because I am an Asian. And to ignore them does not help because the attacks were worsening for no particular reason and I just went away.
Then my 2 1/2 years old baby girl died on March 12, 2013, and Chris was the ONE that has been there and he has never forgotten her anniversary, of which quite surprising me every time because he is the ONLY ONE that never forgets it.
I am glad and happy to find such a wonderful community of many talented and warm hearted writers in this place. And surprisingly everyone is helping everyone and supporting each other in any way, and I know somehow that now I can call this place as my home.
Will check on you soon enough after I settled. You take care and wish you a lovely weekend!
(✿◠‿◠)
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07/03/2016 at 12:29 pm
I am sorry to hear about your daughter Sherrie. I read your About page, and I knew right the way you are a very strong and wonderful person. And it’s great to hear that you have such genuine and loyal friends as Chris. You too have a nice weekend:)
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07/03/2016 at 2:29 am
Yes, I like it when you get a community feeling here on WordPress.
WordPress is a very large site and it takes awhile to make friends.
Smaller sites like Journalspace and Xanga- it was easy to develop a sense of community.
But here at WordPress, it took me at least 3 years of writing before I made friends.
When Sherrie (who I had become friends with at Xanga back in 2011- the Xanga site itself shut down in 2013) started writing full time here at Xanga about 2014, then we renewed out acquaintance and soon enough we had made acquaintance with a bunch of great writers and wonderful people here at WordPress. 🙂
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07/03/2016 at 5:50 am
It won’t be the same either without you and Daniel here, Chris.
Now I noticed I have not seen Daniel for quite sometimes … I hope everything is alright with him. Missing that funny old man! I hope he is okay.
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07/03/2016 at 3:26 pm
I think Daniel is just taking a break from WordPresss over the summer.
I hope I don’t have to leave WordPress, Sherrie
I’ll probably be evicted out of my apartment this coming week for not paying this month’s rent.
The person I knew in Edmonton who I usually turned to for help when I had absolutely no money to pay the rent told me last month, “This is absolutely the last time I’m helping you out” when he paid last month’s rent and he meant it.
That is why I wished my job had lasted.
Now I’m just praying that something good will happen.
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07/03/2016 at 3:55 pm
I hope you have someone to stay with
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07/03/2016 at 9:52 pm
I’m trying to find some one.
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07/03/2016 at 11:32 pm
I know how difficult it is to be up in the air like that. It happened to me when I moved to U.S. and didn’t have a place to stay. I was supposed to go to Cincinnati with my friends but my uncle in New York told me I could stay with them, and I did. After five days his wife told me I had one day to pack and leave, because she didn’t like that it was crowded in their apartment (I only stayed there for five days and was quiet as a mouse). I didn’t know anyone in New York (not one person), so I found a room for rent in a newspaper and had to spend almost all of the money I had on a rent payment…
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07/04/2016 at 2:40 am
Wow.
What a rough time.
Sorry you went through something like that.
It seems many of us get knocked over by great storms at some points in our lives.
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07/03/2016 at 12:23 pm
Wow 3 years is a long time, I also wasn’t taking to anyone and it felt kinda slow until I met you Chris. I guess I was lucky to meet you right the way hehe
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07/03/2016 at 12:32 pm
Now that I think about it, you guys have shared so much about you, and having seen your About pages, which are very friendly and personal, I probably should change mine a bit because now it sounds too short…
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07/03/2016 at 3:32 pm
Looking forward to reading your new About page.
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07/17/2016 at 9:43 pm
Well, this is certainly fate, Natasha. You now have the Three Blogoteers taking up residence in your wonderful blog. Sherrie and Chris are like brother and sister to me. We all have our stories and we write them too. Message in a Bottle is an excellent introduction to your writing talent. I enjoy the sense of visitation from the future self with the message and the excitement of making the connection to the puppy. I grew up in Florida on the beach and resonate well with your wonderful description of the beach, the broken shells, and looking for the whole ones, which was a favorite pastime of mine. My older brother actually found a message in a bottle. It had a nice note in it asking to become pen pals with the discoverer. It had a phone number and address from a young girl, my brother’s age. The magic began for him in that moment of reading the message on the beach. He met the girl and they dated for a while until we moved away. I thought about this as I read your story. I enjoyed how Sarah connected with the message, her intuition and followed it to something special in her dog, Message. Best of all was her returning the message for another to experience the magic. Looking forward to more. 😀 -Daniel
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07/17/2016 at 10:17 pm
Thank you very much Daniel. I’m happy you liked the story. The Three Blogoteers lol, I love that.:) Wow, that sounds like a story from a movie, about your brother finding a message in a bottle and meeting and having a relationship with that girl! Wow. I didn’t know anyone sent messages in bottles anymore haha. That just gave me an idea to do that. It would probably make someone’s day, or even a week, them telling others later how they found a message in a bottle. By the way, looking for shells is my favorite thing to do at the beach also, and especially in Florida, because there are such beautiful corals there, I brought like a 5 pound bag full of broken corals and shells from Miami this winter, they even had to stop me at the security check, because it looked weird through the scanner hahahah.
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07/18/2016 at 5:55 am
Yes, my brother was believing in the Fairy Godmother when he fell in love with the girl who sent him the message. I was secretly jealous and combed the beach like a bloodhound for months looking for my soulmate in the bottle. Sadly, that was the only one we ever found. I think if you put a message in a bottle someone else will believe in the Fairy Godmother. I can imagine the security people were also jealous of all that coral you had in your luggage. The love affair between the sea and shore produces many beautiful treasures. It’s difficult to decide when we have enough. I’ve had to have that talk with myself about obsessions at times. 😉
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07/18/2016 at 12:32 pm
Hehe yes well, some obsessions are harmless:))
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07/18/2016 at 6:01 pm
Oh, yes! Those harmless obsessions are the best kind. 😀
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07/18/2016 at 6:28 pm
For sure 🤓
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