A Diary’s House – The Fourth Heartbeat
Cause and affect. This implants the notion that the mischief from the first chapter episode leads to the consequences in the second. Life can be a great teacher of problematic issues when we are adults. But a child often needs the tutorial tug of a parent in order to be guided onto the correct path. Children can be easily diverted, even with the best intentions, and this is the humor premise for this particular chapter.
Landon has his mind full of ideas, some inserted by his father at an even earlier age, though his father would not portend that his son would have utilized such a fashionable tale (from the prologue) as he ultimately did. Boys of this age do like adventure, this not being such an uncommon thing. Boys with a kinship to adventure have a general preoccupation with it, sometimes to the point it consumes every thought they can muster, and sometimes it can even consume their better judgment.
During the days and times from Landon’s era, this would have been no different.
Being truant and away from your sleep at such a young age can have its grave consequences. In the previous chapter, Landon had garnered the trust of his two fellow schoolmates, and their adventure to proceed down the Randola River was soon to come. But having to stay up all night, away from home, and not getting an ounce of sleep left our young hero with a bit of sleep deprivation. What made it even worse was his parents had detected his truancy during the long night, and they too, were deprived of their sleep.
The parent’s worry turned to the point where they had to fetch the local sheriff. And upon Landon’s early morning arrival, he was caught in his own implied deception. Now how should a parent arrive at the correct punishment? The traditional ways might be ‘go to bed without any supper!’ or ‘I’ll need to introduce you to the hickory switch!’ or ‘you’ll spend the next two weeks after school, in your room, and without friends or anytime outside…’. All may appear appropriate to derive the correct punishment for Landon’s childhood prank and foolery.
But Landon’s parents were more intuitive than this, and the more articulate in their approach. I’ll tease it but I will not give away the essential aspect of this chapter. But let’s just say Landon felt the unexpected embarrassment which would have proved out the parent’s choice in the matter – Landon would indeed learn his lesson soon enough.
Sleep, so untimely misused before and simply mis-guarded, becomes a high commodity which, as it turned out, needed to be attended to almost immediately. Landon would not have such a luxury. The lesson he learned here is a tempered one, but becomes more effective by the way it teaches than by the vital lesson itself.
Landon would learn to become more calculated in his truancy’s. The power of adventure and the prevailing draw it had on him could not escape unless he caught the curiosity of a cat, and so he does – the Randola River would soon have its potential new victims..
The hardships he would endure were more of a testament to his persistence than the wisdom he would eventually garner from such lessons. This chapter is a mere building block to future lessons, and deeper ones at this, that he would inevitably discover.
Even though he would not travel often close to the Randola, the stories his father once told him brought the river to him; the undertows, the variant and violent currents, the lives that were lost, the history, the profound mythical realm this river drew – all had his fancy and his single-minded approach. It was as if he could hear the rush of those waters and the torrent nature to this miniature sea that captivated him so.
Initial impressions are often deceiving, sometimes a downright thief of the truth. But Landon had his eyes and heart set on defeating the Randola. If only he knew what would was in store for him, he might think better on his decisions – but then again, maybe not. Life has its own lessons and we can’t escape them, no matter how hard we try to avert our paths away towards safety. Sometimes we are destined to endure the long journey they bring, including Landon Hampshire…
We all have our own Randola River to conquer…
But the river has more than waters in it; something deeper, something more prevailing. Perhaps the Randola also carries the heart of ‘A Diary’s House’ within. Perhaps this is what draws Landon after all, or the mere mystery and allure which is synonymous with the legends that such a river carries. Landon knew something was out there that no one else had ever seen. He would venture to meet with it, and find a direct course to his own destiny.
More adventure was to come. The next chapter has its own story to tell. A farmhouse, steeped with as much mystery as the Randola, lies in wait. The next turn of the page will reveal new mysteries and new beginnings; ‘A Diary’s House is to unfold, piece by piece, page by page…
And so goes the fourth heartbeat to the ‘Language from the Heart’ series…
Until the next heartbeat…
C. David Murphy
A Diary’s House – The First Heartbeat
A Dairy’s House – The Second Heartbeat
A Diary’s House – The Third Heartbeat
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