Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Think (09/02/10)
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TITLE: Golf In Glory | Previous Challenge Entry
By Gary Morris
09/09/10 -
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My plans were for a Sleep-in-Saturday and eventually a hot cup of Harry and David’s Moose Munch flavored coffee on the front porch with my lovely wife, while we watched the cars wind down our busy street. However, my weekday routine spilled over into my Saturday. At five in the morning, I’m lying in bed staring at the glare from the street light filtering through the blinds.
I do wish I could fall back into a deep sleep, but this cool September Saturday morning causes me to think, yet again. I think of the two sets of golf clubs still waiting two floors down in my basement for the early Saturday morning golf game, the one that’s now eight years late. That thought is only the launch pad for my time traveling thoughts that will take me back to September, 2002.
It had been a typical work week for the both of us. The long awaited weekend was finally approaching and my son and I had planned for a little father/son golf game for early Saturday morning. Neither of us was very good at golf, yet he was much better than me. After all, he is the one who got me interested in the game when he gave me a set of clubs for Father’s Day earlier in the year. From my standpoint, it was a perfect opportunity to spend time with my nineteen year old.
On the Friday night before, I settled for a quiet evening at home watching TV and eating carry-out from the local Seafood Express. He instead chose to enjoy a football game with his friends thirty miles away. He enjoyed frolicking with the fans more than watching the game. I enjoyed catching the score on Football Friday on the ten o’clock news.
He phoned home after the game to say he was going to eat fast food with friends and would be home later. I reminded him of the early golf game and encouraged him to come home at a descent hour. He assured me he would not be out late, so I soon snuggled in for a good nights sleep.
My time travel is briefly interrupted by the warm tears streaming down my cheeks to soak my warm pillow. I wipe my eyes and travel back to the cool windy September Saturday when the brown leaves from the recent drought were dancing in my back yard, and to the father/son golf game that would never be.
The phone call woke me around eleven the night before. I learned that my golf buddy had been in an auto accident. I drove the thirty mile stretch and pressed into the crowded trauma facility only to find that my son was gone.
He left without saying goodbye. He left me with a gaping hole that couldn’t be filled by the contents of this world. He left me with enough tears to fill an ocean. He left me with two sets of golf clubs that continue to wait patiently for the next game, the one that will never be. I was literally left holding the bags.
Now the sun is rising and the darkness is fleeing on this cool morning. I wipe my tears, roll over and continue to think. I wonder what the game would have been like. I’m sure he would have won and boasted for many days to come. I wonder what he would have become. I wonder who or what he would be today. Those things I will never know. However, I imagine he would get a good chuckle today over knowing that eight years later I’m grieving over a golf game that never was.
I push those thoughts aside, wipe my tears and rise from my pity. While the golf clubs continue to wait, I must look ahead. I must think on the good things and hope for another father/son day, perhaps a golf game on a beautiful green on the bank of the River of Life. Hey! Don’t even try to stop me from thinking! Imagination, it’s a gift!
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Aside from the touching topic, your writing style is very readable and written nicely. I enjoyed this!