The Perfect Weapon Ending 1 Chapter 1004: Part 4
Ending 1 Chapter 1004 Part 4
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind but now I see.
He nodded and lifting his voice, finished,
Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come,
‘tis grace that brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.
As the soft tenor of the last note drifted away across the grave, Sydney opened her arms and her father stepped into them. As they encircled each other, she rubbed her cheek against his chest and whispered, “The truth is that following your heart will always lead you home.”
“Yes. Let’s go.”
With a last look at the grave, they turned around and walked back to the car. “To the beach?” Sydney asked a few minutes later after they had met Frank again in the office and washed up.
“To the beach,” Jack agreed. “It’s been years since I’ve had a hot dog and Coke from a vendor at the beach.”
“Let’s do it.”
“This time I’m driving, “Jack said, pulling the keys out of his pocket and waving them at her. “I’d like to get there before you actually turn into an old lady instead of just driving like one.”
“And I’d like to arrive there with my stomach in my torso rather than in my throat.”
Getting hot dogs and drinks from a vendor, they walked over to the wall separating the parking area from the beachfront. They both threw a leg over the short stone wall and straddling it, began eating. Squinting in the sunlight since they had left their sunglasses in the car, Sydney asked with a grin, “So...Dad, are you ever going to tell me exactly how you got that scar?”
“Nope,” Jack said succinctly.
“C’mon. You can tell me. How embarrassing can it be?”
“Extremely. And I bet there are embarrassing moments you’d rather not discuss with me. Like, let’s see, why you and Vaughn were, shall we say, distracted enough by each other to think it was a good idea to leave the airport in Nice together?”
“Alright, I get your point,” Sydney said sullenly.
“Who’s the petulant child now?” Jack asked happily.
“What are we both, two or something?”
“I think...that we will be growing up together. Or growing together. Our relationship...we do have a past, but it’s like starting all over again, in some ways, isn’t it?” Jack asked, moving his hand forward to lightly touch the ring on Sydney’s right hand.
They sat there, talking quietly for a while, eating and drinking. Like Sydney thought happily, a normal father and daughter out for a day at the beach.
When Sydney had just a bite of her hot dog left, her father got up to toss their soda cans in the trash. She smiled, remembering other visits to the beach when they had held hands, wading in the water, when his hair was dark, not silver. Then looking down, she stared at the gold on her hand, glinting up at her in the bright sunlight. When he came up next to her and sat down on the wall again, she looked up at her father and asked, “It was the perfect weapon, wasn’t it, Dad? That chain?”
“In one sense it was. That thing, that piece of gold, allowed us to capture her. A doubleplay, because it allowed me to end that portion of my life and move on. And hopefully for you too, in your own way. But it’s what the chain symbolized that made it truly the perfect weapon.”
“What? What did it symbolize? To you? To her?”
“Faith. Hope. Love. They are the links....that bind people together, aren’t they? I thought I had lost them forever due to a death that did not truly exist and a betrayal that did. It took me twenty years to find them again and a whole circle of people, new links I guess you might say, to help me find my way back to my self. To a home, a new home. It took... caring, concern, compassion. From you. Judy. Susan. Vaughn. Weiss. Dixon. Zamir. Nia. Even Kendall helped in his own...unique way. So many others. Of course, finally, Dave whose death did exist, but whose love never ended. Perhaps he was the strongest link of all in the chain of my life, teaching me that true love never ends, never fails, even when we do. And you know what life’s, my life’s greatest irony is?”
“What, Daddy?”
“The irony is that the chain symbolizes the connections, the bonds between loved ones and yet--- The caring and connections are the most perfect weapon of all.”
“The perfect weapon? To do what?” Sydney asked, tossing the last bit of her bun to a seagull who promptly snatched it and flew off into the blue sky, into a sun so bright it hurt the eyes to look into directly.
“To do what? Don’t you see?” Jack asked as Sydney jumped down from the wall and tugged him with her. They bent down and pulled off their footwear and left it near the wall. Putting his hand out, Sydney took it in hers and they began walking towards the water’s edge.
“Dad, what were you saying?” Sydney asked, pulling her father to a stop. They both stood there a moment looking out as the waves tumbled to shore and then flowed back out. She prompted again, “The perfect weapon?”
Jack looked off in the distance. Looking back at his daughter, over her shoulder he saw their footprints in the sand behind him. Tugging her hand, they began walking together, moving forward along the beach.
Meeting Sydney's eyes, Jack said softly to his daughter, “In the end, the connections are the perfect weapon. The perfect weapon is what sets you free.”
Sydney nodded and said softly, "Let's go."
THE END (of Ending 1)
At this point. I will give you four options:
Option A: Stop reading the story
Option B: Proceed to Epilogue 1 and 2
Option C: Read Ending 2
Option D: Read Epilogues 1 and 2, the Intermezzo and finally, Ending 2
Regardless of which option you choose, I hope you have found something worthwhile in this story and that you will leave me some feedback!
Thanks for reading.