Sparkling Water

Clear, sparkling clear water.  And the thousands of tiny spheres rise from the bottom of the glass.  Crystal clear bubbles rising through crystal water in a crystal clear antique goblet.  These are memories of a life well lived, or mostly well lived.  Nobody’s perfect.

Appearing out of, seemingly, nowhere, the bubbling memories seek the surface.  An old man sits in a common coffee shop and the memories keep rising from his life as a young boy, through a war he knew as a young man and he cannot seem to shake.  

Jumbling, bumping, crashing into and joining other tiny spheres.  They never seem to stop.  Popping at the surface and becoming the air he breathes. Life is so long, he thinks.  When, if ever, will the memories fade.  When, if ever, will the goblet become still water; unconfounded by trapped gas.  So very long have memories clouded his thoughts.

His first true love, overwhelming his soul, locking up his heart.  His first two babies sealing that lock. Welding tight the hasp. And then the explosion. The bullet shot exploding that lock, the door behind and leaving all that was inside covered in shrapnel.  The high definition memory shock of crawling out through the ruins of that doorway.

Bubbles, thousands of bubbles rising through the source of life that is water.  He, waiting for enough of those bubbles to pass into the air above to take the bite out of the remaining liquid enough to take the first sip.  

And the first sip returns his mind to what and where he is now as an antique himself.  His price at auction would serve a provenance of three quarters of a century.  Turn him over and look for the artist’s signature.  An angel arrived, without sirens or flashing lights, but quietly of a warm evening.  Standing under his front porch light, throwing off a glow of her own. And he was saved, his children were saved.

That glow has not dimmed over the nearly half century since.  And casting a new effervescence of thousands and thousands more bubbles.  Tiny miracles one to one to two to two and compounding without an ending.