Trust the Wind

Day 1

It's been a day and the sun was setting so my shift for work was about to begin. My brain has been busy and eager to finally be able to go to work, to finally be able to see Mary. My uniform was already placed on my body because I never had the chance to take it off and my legs were hastily walking down through the busy town. It was clear that the news of my wife was spread far and wide through out the town because every pair of eyes was set on my face. Whenever I would slightly turn my head towards someone in curiosity they would always look away, like nothing ever happened this morning.

After around 5 minutes of agonizing embarrassment, I finally reach those familiar slippery stairs. It feels like twenty four hours ago this was just a place to make a living for us and to hold strangers that I didn't care for the future of. Now the moist air and wobbly stones feel ten times worse. My right foot takes its first turn stepping down, my left foot following. My slow pace slowly speeding up realizing that my Mary is down there. While walking down I see that the last guard locked the door and so my fingers fumble around on my thigh trying to find the keys. As I reach the bottom of the stairs I find the collection of metal on my side and bring the main door's key up to the lock. Blood pumping, I struggle with the key getting into the lock but eventually open it.

I push the door open and a loud creak is caused by the old metal. I walk forward looking into each cell.
"Mary?" I say in a slow worried tone as I see a silhouette under a scratchy blanket, in the corner of a small, dusty cell. The blanket tussles around as the person lifts themself up.
A face is revealed to be an old man with brown teeth and messed up long white hair.
"Mary!? I'm no las! Leave me alone you fatheaded man!" He yells in an angry tone. My head leans back and my eyes widen in surprise. Has this man always been here? He must be new..

"Amos..." I hear a weak yet beautiful voice behind me. I swivel my head around quickly to see my wife, sitting right behind the bars.
"Oh Mary!.." I say and rush towards her cell and crouch down in front of it. "You don't deserve this, this shouldn't be happening to you-" I blather and pull out my key ring once more. I fumble through all the keys to find the right one to set Mary free.
"Amos! Stop...if they found out you were the one to set me free they would hang you too. This is my destiny, and I want to let it happen"
I stop all my movement, still looking at the keys. What did she just say? I slowly look up at her in fear.
"What." I feel my body temperature drop, like snow was dumped on my heart.

"I shall be hanged for what I've done..in a week." She reaches her hand through the bars and brushes some hair out of my face.
I grab onto the bars with both of my hands.
"They can't do that! You've done nothing wrong to have such an act put on you!" I say as my eyes get wider, if that was even possible.
"Amos. What they said was true. I did help pirates. I believed it was the right thing to do." She lets go of my face and goes to caress the back of my hair, strands landing between her fingers.
"Why?..." I say in disbelief. My hands still grasped to the bars.

"The pirates I helped, the captain Amos.. He had the same last name I owned when I was a young girl." She dropped her head down and placed her hand on the ground, playing with a dusty pebble lying there. I look into her eyes yet they don't look back at me. "I don't know what role he played in my family but I just know I felt a connection." She slowly looked up at me. My face looked a mix of calm and confusion, but my heart was pounding faster than a sailboat on a windy day.

"You have pirate blood?" I drop my hands down onto my lap.
"I believe so.." Mary brings both hands to my cheeks and lifts my face up. "I hope you don't see me different. I love you, I always will. I've learned recently to always follow the wind. The wind decides for itself where to go. Listen to the wind Amos." The bars were just wide enough for her to pull my head closer and kiss my forehead. My hair falls over my face when she pulls away slightly. I look up and bring my hand up to Mary's chin. I hold it with my thumb and pointer finger. We both lean in closer to each other. Her rosy fragrance is all I can smell, like the musty air of the dungeon never existed. Her blonde, curly hair was down even though she always had it up and was tickling my hand.

The lingering thought of Mary's death made me eager to feel her touch. I needed her, she is my life, what I needed to survive. The feeling of the future leads me to bring Mary's face to mine. We both knew we wouldn't see each other ever again next week. You can tell by how there was a desperate aura for each other's touch, lingering through out our minds.

After trading turns leaning in we finally pull away to breathe. We look into each other's eyes, separated by society. Suddenly there was an interruption.
"We all die somehow! It's better to die earlier so you don't have to worry about it later! So shut up and stop talking!" The old man says behind us. I slowly turn my head towards him and then back towards Mary. "I forgot he was here..". I mumble to Mary to make sure the man didn't hear. She lightly smiles, her face was happy but I know deep down there is more.

For my whole shift I sat with Mary, enjoying her company, while she enjoyed mine for her last days.