Day 2005: 5 Minute Freewrite: ocean travel (with Bruni on my mind)

For Bruni, @wonderwop, I felt the call to do a truly five-minute freewrite. Setting the timer on my stove. (I hate the new stove and its "smart" features, but let us focus on freewriting.)

Ocean travel.

It sounded insane.

A raft on the river was comprehensible. Doable. The ~shores~ [banks] on either side reassured her that she was still close to the land--close to civilization--or would be, sooner or later.

Oddly, she had not seen any towns or villages on the way. Yes, it was a dark and starry night, but signs of life should have beckoned: the scent of a smoldering fire, an occasional distant light in a window, something, anything.

She had built the raft to escape the man her parents would have her marry. She packed a little survival kit and felt prepared to face the future, the unknown. Uncertainty was better than the certitude of marrying that smarmy villager with crumbs in his beard and the stench of the unwashed. Hello. The river was good for a lot of things, Sir Reeks-a-Lot. Then again, maybe it was just as well he didn't let the clean, clear waters swirl around him. Maybe his stench would kill too many fish.

She had met a Tuscan man, just once, but that was all it took. His name was Bruni. He said he had traveled across the ocean, and the ocean would take him back again from her world to his. How she pleaded with the gods to get him to stay here, in her own world, but he had places to go.

Well, she was going places too. He had inspired her. She had something he called "agency," or free will, and not even her father could impede that.

Maybe if he reeked and had ugly yellow teeth, she would have been less likely to believe him.

Now she had swiftly been carried by the current to a vast and unfathomably endless body of water.
This, then, was the ocean.
The raft would be a death sentence.
Of course she had to abandon it now.
Her five minutes were up!

source: wallpaperflare.com

Did anyone try to follow her?
Who even knew she had escaped by raft in the dark of night?
Where were the cities?
She could live alone near the river, fishing and sleeping in a crude tent, but for how long?
How many moons would she have to float on the ocean before seeing land again?
The ocean beckoned.
She'd need a real ship.
And a sailor.
Will she find one?
Where can she find a map and how will she make her way to Tuscany?

Day 2005: 5 Minute Freewrite: Wednesday - Prompt: ocean travel

How great it is to have you here with us @mariannewest, and here's hoping we hang together for years to come. Losing Bruni (@wonderwop) didn't mean the end of freewritehouse, and at least we can revisit his freewrites thanks to the blockchain.

His last post was three years ago.

Here is the freewrite where he announced his cancer diagnosis:

Day-906-Freewrite Monday prompt demon by @wonderwop

There's a demon inside me and it's called cancer, and I can't wait to kill it again. This shit is getting old. I'm starting chemo on April 21st and I'm sure it's gonna suck. Wednesday I get my port installed, and I'm sure that's gonna suck. Throwing up every night sucks, but I think I'm getting a six pack under all my fat, I'll be able to see it after I drop 200 pounds. I'm trying to keep a little laughter in my life, but it's getting harder everyday. Last night I had some crazy dreams and I'm not looking forward to sleeping tonight. I may have to start drinking. 🙏

Freewrite by Bruni

{No, I haven't gone hunting for the post announcing his departure from the land of the living. But you know me. I will. Just, not today.}

If there's ocean travel in the afterlife, I picture Bruni manning a lifeboat and reeling in lost souls.

If there's an afterlife at all, I hope you are so busy with friends and loved ones, you don't need to see Carol waving from her little laptop in the Midwest.

Love you Bruni!

Your humor, your wit, your positivity, your GIFs, your tech skills, your stories.

Love you Marianne, @owasco, @myjob, and so many others here, too many to list (sorry!).

THANK YOU all for being here.