What Pegman saw” is a weekly challenge based on Google Streetview. You can read the rules here. You can find today’s location on this page, from where you can also get the Inlinkz code.
Image by melaniejwagar from Pixabay
Farewell
The dawn sky glows oyster and then shatters as a golden ray of light lances across the land. I start the Harley.
“For you, Namid,” I whisper, and her voice whispers back the lines of poetry she spoke at our first meeting.
Cruising south-west, I take time to notice the lake by which we picnicked, the woods through which we roamed hand in hand. The bike throbs gently. Lakes, trees, kilometres and hours creep past inexorably, like the years of a life.
Fifteen hours after setting out I ride through Cold Lake, down to the water’s edge.
I watch the massed clouds, purple and gold in the evening light.
I remember.
I remember the attacker’s snarling face. I remember savage pain in my belly, ripped as I struggled to protect Namid. I remember her eyes as the knife pierced her chest, her anguished gaze of farewell.
The sun sets.
A fitting tribute to a love snatched away. The setting fits the story perfectly, that open road, that sense of going into the unknown. Very sad, Penny and well written
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Dear Lynn
Thank you for reading and for your kind comments. As you say, it’s a very sad story, and I’m not quite sure where the emotional drive for it came from.
With very best wishes
Penny
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It’s wonderfully written, Penny
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Dear Penny,
Your opening line eloquently sets the stage. Vivid images and deep emotions tell the story. The sense of loss is profound.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle
Thank you for reading and for your very kind comments. I’m glad the sense of loss comes across; I worked quite hard on that.
Shalom
Penny
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Stunning writing, Penny. Loved the language. What a difficult trip that would be!
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Dear Karen
Thank you for reading and for your very kind comments. Yes, it would have been a difficult trip to make – but not making it might have been even more difficult. And, while it is probably stretching the metaphor too far, sunset gives the chance of a new sunrise…
With very best wishes
Penny
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I have to agree with the comments here, Penny. This writing was stellar, stunning, beautiful imagery even if the story was so sad…
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Dear Dale
Thank you so much for reading and for your very generous comments. I’m delighted you found the imagery beautiful, because it’s important to the meaning of the story. Life and love are always terminated by death; but they are always beautiful and always significant.
With very best wishes
Penny xx
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That they are…
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A grim journey to have to make. Well written, Penny.
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Dear Iain
Thank you for reading and for your kind comment. Yes, a grim journey in one sense, but also a journey that allowed the narrator to capture the essence of the love he had shared with Namid, from their first meeting in Flin Flon, to her murder in Cold Lake. It would have been a gruelling ride, too, 900 kilometres between sunrise and sunset.
With very best wishes
Penny
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What a dramatic contrast between the beauty of the setting described so lovingly and the harsh memory of the attack that killed the narrator’s loved one. You paint a very touching farewell. I especially liked the line about how the lakes and hours and kilometers passed by inexorably like the years of a life: it gave a sense that this person has lived all these years without this person they loved, and how long that felt, but also how there’s no fighting it.
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Dear Joy
Thank you for reading and for commenting with such insight. You’ve very much imagined yourself into the position of the narrator. In my backstory (Ha!) the journey is one of healing. The sunset represents that he has accepted the grief, and after a sunset, we have the potential for a new sunrise. He will never stop loving Namid, but he may find another he can love.
With very best wishes
Penny
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The sunset and sunrise symbolism is nicely done, I like that.
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A powerful and heartbreaking work. Thank you for sharing it.
~Cie~
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Dear Cara
Thank you for reading and commenting.
With best wishes
Penny
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