Editor's Note: This 5-part installment is part of MANA's Short Story Series on the MANA Sunriser Blog. MANA's Short Story Series is a “throwback” to the days when print newspapers and magazines published short stories that appeared as a series. MANA has brought serials back to public life! We hope you enjoy this five-part series.
Part 1
Sam is 11 years old. He lives alone with his father Jake. Their home is a small cottage made of fieldstone along the Northern Maine coast. The Great Depression has just entered its second year.
Sam’s life is highly regimented. His father is a cold, hard man who demands obedience. Sam is homeschooled daily by his father and their routine is the same every day. Jake has a small lobster boat that he and Sam set out each morning before the sun breaks over the horizon.
Sam has no other human contact aside from his father. He is neither happy nor sad; neither motivated nor melancholy; neither bright nor dismal. The best word to describe Sam, and Jake for that matter, is morbid.
There is an old stone lighthouse about three-quarters of a mile south of their cottage. The keeper never seems to leave the lighthouse, and Sam has never visited. Aside from the cottage, that lighthouse and the lonely old boat are the only other signs of civilization in Sam’s life.
Sam knows no other existence than the one he lives. He knows he must have a mother. The subject is never addressed with him. He is not inclined to ask.
Part 2
Sam wakes one hour before the sunrise. He quietly gets out of bed, dresses himself, walks into the main room of the cottage, and waits for his father. Within minutes, they are down at the old boat. The boat looks like it should be condemned. Jake and Sam head directly East toward the rising sun.
