Cathedral of Marble Strands :: Creative Writing Examples

   Cathedral of Marble Strands    Richard Stewart lay stretched out on the cool stone. His handsome, youthful face was relaxed into a slight smile, eyes closed lazily. Richard's hand played unconsciously with his long black hair lying on the reddish surface . . . "Four slices of lemon . . . four cubes of sugar. . . and a straw," thought Richard, and pictured the glass in his mind. Without opening his eyes, he reached out and felt it in his hand. It was cool, and the droplets that condensed from the morning mist made it slippery. He raised his head off the ground and brought the straw to his lips. He took a long, slow draft, letting the taste settle in. It was slightly too sour to be perfect, but Richard didn't mind. One day he would discover the ultimate lemonade, but he was in no hurry. He lay there drinking it for a long time. Lemonade doesn't have to run out in heaven. Richard lay on a narrow ledge about five hundred feet up the face of a cliff. Above him, just under the low hanging clouds, a pair of eagles circled, wings motionless. Beneath, a green valley lay shrouded in the morning fog. The clouds concealed the sun and gave the valley the cool gray feel Richard wanted. Near the foot of the cliff, the valley was grassy, with an occasional shrub clinging to the rocky soil here and there. Blue flowers growing in sparse islands shone dimly where the easy wind blew away patches of fog. A wide stream slid from around the base of the cliff. It began somewhere in the mountains behind Richard and disappeared in the denser fog at the deeper part of the valley. There, where not even the tops of the trees were visible, an airy structure of white marble stretched its spires almost as high as the cliff Richard lay on. Four great arches rose, flanked a spiderweb of smaller ones, and met in a cluster of domes, towers and spires. Richard liked to call it the Cat hedral. Beyond, the valley lost itself where the whiteness of the sky met the fog on the ground. Richard stretched the hand that held the glass of lemonade over the edge and let it slip away. He listened for it's fall, but it went too far down to hear. He relaxed his mind, waiting for some idea to come to him.