Stay
an excerpt

1.

Countless waves crash on the rocky and wet fall beach.
Luke stares in the distance, spreads his arms and leans forward into the arms of the wind. He loves to be in the wind a few minutes before the day really starts. It’s a little bit before six in the morning; his paper will be delivered in a few minutes. Maybe he should go back, he considers.
He looks around. To the left he sees the rocky beginnings of the village where he lives. That’s where he’ll need to go in a few hours when his marvelous job starts. Luke grins at his own sarcasm. To the right, after a small inlet, a forest starts. It’s more a patch of wood than a forest, it probably was a forest long ago, but the fishermen here need boats and a little wharf is now where trees once were. Luke squints his eyes and is able to see the brown and red building that makes up the wharf and the early people already working there. With some amusement he notices he’s not the only one who gets up early in this little town.
He then turns around and with the wind in his back walks through some shrubs, crosses a deserted street and arrives at his house. The house is a fairly new house built at the time investors thought the little town would have enormous growth potential so people would be insane not to built there. History will learn that no big companies came and the little city never became quite the big city as people had hoped for. For Luke it was all the same, it was even better for now he was able to afford a house so close to the Atlantic Ocean. He knows for a fact that this feat would be impossible in most developed towns in the area that actually did grow in the last few decades. It was a nice little house and garden, big enough for him and large enough for his dreams. Of course the house was not meant for him alone, but some things just happen.
The radio welcomes him as he enters the kitchen from the backdoor that led him through his back garden. “I must have forgotten to turn it off,” he says out loud as he prepares some breakfast and much needed coffee. The radio plays a nice mix of modern rock to get the sleep out of his head. The coffee is getting ready and the newspaper on his table, sometimes life isn’t as bad as he thinks, Luke ponders to himself.
His happy thoughts are lifted as he hears the annoying jingle of his cell, “I really need to change that poppy sound,” he murmurs as he grabs his phone from the inside pocket of his leather jacket.
“Luke here,” he grumps, knowing that it’s work as he sees the caller ID on his little screen. Who else could it have been? Not his parents, or mother since his father passed away not too long ago. So that basically ruled out anyone, his friends would never call him this early and the girl he talked to last time in the local bar promised to call him but never did and he highly doubts that she would as early in the morning as it is.
“Hey Luke,” a female voice sounds on the other side, “can you come in early today, we have some great stuff for you to do.”
“Can you elaborate on great?”
“Just get here, grumpy,” the voice says playful and hangs up.
Luke stares at the phone for a little bit and decides to place it back in his jacket and walks over to his breakfast table to have some bacon and eggs and as said before, much needed coffee. The smell of coffee is one of the most exhilarating smells Luke knows early in the morning; even better than the smell of his beloved ocean in the morning, even better than the scent of a woman in the morning. He takes a sip and tries to enjoy it for he knows he’s going to be interrupted soon