Does the Ocean G
(Inspired by “Boy with a Coin” b
Gaia Crans
1.
To many, there wouldn’t be much significance
of a small rural cliffside town in Maine
during the late 1930s, but to Henry, Jonesport was
his everything. He was born there, and now being
11 years old, had never been anywhere else in his
life. Henry had a large family with many siblings
and they were extremely poor, as was almost everyone
else in their town and most of the country. He
knew his family was needy when it came to money,
that he got hungry sometimes, and that he wore
second- third- fourth-hand clothes with stains and
holes in them, but he went about his childhood like
most others. He helped around the house doing
chores, and played around town with other kids his
age. It was simple.
His favorite friend was a girl named Evelyn
who was a year older than him. She was a sweet
young girl who lived in the nastiest, sagging, paintchipped
house in town. Henry didn’t care about
that though, all he cared about was that she would
throw a ball around with him and told him stories
that he had never heard before, despite having a
set of grandparents and older siblings who told
their own stories. He couldn’t believe that there
was more he hadn’t heard. So almost every day
the two of them would play in the woods, by the
cliffs, near the sandlot, and on the street with other
kids who would hit their ball around with sticks.
But his favorite spot with her was always along the
cliffs where they could look out at the tempestuous
ocean, admiring its wild beauty and trying to see
across the water, to the other side of the world.
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