Life's a Breeze

Chase couldn't help but marvel at the way God had been setting things straight in his life. Peter had been completely right, somehow. Ever since he'd come home from his first visit Greater Faith church, he'd been able to sleep through the night. This hadn't entirely stopped his reoccurring dream, but it no longer kept him up at night, and that had changed so much.

He'd tried calling Peter the following day and trying to understand what had happened, but Peter had merely laughed about it, explaining that it was God who had healed Chase, and that he'd simply been in the right place at the right time to preform the prayer. After trying in vain to understand it for a few more days, Chase eventually eventually decided that it was best not to question the gift, and accept it for what it was.

Sleeping more meant that he wasn't exhausted all day, which meant in a better mood, which made him more productive, which meant he felt better about going out during the day and doing things, which helped keep him in a good mood. Overall, it seemed like he went from a horrible month to the best days he'd had in years. He'd even retrieved his bike from storage and after getting it back into good working order, had taken to riding it four or five days a week.

His work life was improving drastically too. His sleeping more meant he was more able to deal with the ridiculous demands of his client, and was able to keep from getting angry or discouraged when his work needed to be altered. By the time April came to a close, Chase had finally completed the work to the satisfaction of his client and was comfortably flushed with cash for a while.

Granted, first tide on that went to his new church. That was another area where things had changed in a good way for him. Having a true church family to visit twice a week gave him highlights to look forward to, and got him to talk to people more often without fear of reproach or judgement. That combined with the recharging of his spiritual batteries meant that Sunday mornings and Thursday evenings couldn't come soon enough for him.

All-in-all Chase had been doing so well and was in such a good mood he'd even called Lisa and they agreed to meet up for coffee today, which happened to be Cinco de Mayo. Chase had never been one to enjoy getting drunk. Well, after the way his father had been, that was hardly a surprise. Still, he enjoyed the idea of going to meet with his sister and given that most people were busy barbecuing or preparing to party that evening, the coffee place wasn't likely too busy.

Chase glanced down at his watch, and then at the commission he'd agreed to take on for someone's pet project. While he didn't really need the money immediately, he didn't want to stop working entirely. For one thing, working consistently would help keep his skills and mind sharp and challenged, whereas becoming lax might damage his ability to take on further projects. Additionally, by only slowing down his work rate instead of stopping entirely, his large check would last longer, and enable to remain relaxed for longer, which would do wonders for his mental health.

Taking in the time, Chase shut down his drawing pad, deciding to finish the commission tomorrow afternoon. He went to the front door, glancing at his phone to see it was a comfortable 64 degrees outside. He slipped on a backpack with a change of clothes and water bottle in it, patting the side pockets to be sure he hadn't misplaced his wallet, and stepped outside.

As he hit the outdoors, the soft spring breeze blew across his face, causing him to close his eyes and revel in the pleasant feeling of the wind. Wind was something that he'd always been fond of growing up, often finding excuses to go outside during extremely windy weather, and enjoying the feeling of his hair and clothes wiping around him in the gales. It had left him with a longing and chase him to get nostalgic in even light winds. This in turn left him with a desire to eventually go skydiving, although as the years had started to stretch on, it seemed less and less likely that he would actually end up going.

As he entered the combination on his padlock with would allow him to ride his bike to the coffee shop, he glanced around, and saw little Mrs. Hoffman sitting on her swinging bench, sipping some tea and looking out at the cars and the passersby.

"Hey Mrs. Hoffman," he said, waving briefly to her.

Her eyes refocused on him and he saw a broad smile break out over her features and she waved back, spilling a small splash of her tea.

"Chase!" she called, and he was glad to hear the happiness in her voice had reached the level it had been at prior to his outburst at her. "Why don't you have a drink with an old lady?"

"Would love to, Mrs. Hoffman," he said, calling loud enough for her to hear him easily. "But I've got to meet with Lisa today. I'll stop by tomorrow though if you'd like?"

"You'd better young man," she said, using a mockingly stern tone.

Chase chuckled and slid the chain out of the tire spokes, mounting his bike and pedaling down the sidewalk towards the coffee shop that was about seven blocks away. It was trek he wouldn't have made by bike in the icy winter, but the comfortable spring weather made it a perfectly pleasant journey. As he pedaled down the sidewalk and across the streets when he could, he passed a few others jogging or walking along their own paths. Many of whom, himself included, had earbuds in, listening to music that made the mundane travel feel more like a scene from a movie.

As he vibration of his handlebars spread through his body, he imagined his life being captured by some movie director. The thought made him laugh softly to himself. His life was something no one would bother watching. He wasn't some action hero or brilliant detective. He didn't have superpowers or an arch-nemesis.

He was just an artist who paid his bills, went to church and spent his free afternoons with his next door neighbor. When it came down to it, his life was just… a life. Still, there was no reason he couldn't enjoy things while they were good… and right now things were great.

Sure, he was still more than a little bothered by the reoccurring dream of the woman on the bridge, but he'd learned not to stress himself out too much. Either it meant something, or it didn't. If it did, God would show him when he needed to know and if it didn't, there was no point trying to solve a nonissue. So instead, he'd began focusing his efforts on his waking life, and had was making some good progress.

What he really wanted to do was make the time to spend a meal with Peter and Miranda when he could. Peter had known that he could heal Chase's sleeplessness. That was something that went beyond average faith, and while he'd learned to accept it, it didn't mean he didn't have questions. However, the primary feeling was one of gratitude. Miranda had hinted that Peter and she had been through a crazy adventure a couple years ago, but somehow she'd never found the time to tell Chase the story.

Chase coasted easily down the sidewalks, only momentarily distracted as a dog that could've passed for a small bear let out a resounding bark, upset by the rod iron fence that intercepted it's path to him. Seeing the cause of his concern safely contained, Chase laughed aloud and continued to journey to the shop, pulling up alongside the building about five minutes later, and heading to the store's restroom to quickly change into a pair of jeans and a fresh shirt, and take a long drink from the water bottle.

As he ordered his coffee and sat at a table, he glanced down at his watch. He'd left a bit early just to be on the safe side. That was another long-time habit of his. As a kid, his mother had seemingly been fond of waiting to leave for trips or journeys until the very last possible second, or even several minutes past. This result of this was that they'd often been late to gatherings, or even to school several days.

It meant that from the moment Chase had turned sixteen and been in charge of his own timetable, he'd made sure he was always early if not on time. He'd rather have to kill fifteen minutes before a meeting than have to explain why he was five minutes late to one. It also helped when he met clients face-to-face. When you were someone who worked on a commission basis, you couldn't afford to start off with a bad impression.

Lisa, however hadn't taken after him, but after their mother. She could've heard about a meeting years in advance, have nothing else scheduled that day, could even have a friend arrange to pick her up and bring her, and would still find a way to be late. Not that it had ever been a serious problem between them, but it still caused him to shake his head at her behavior from time to time.

All things considered, he figured she was likely to be another twenty or thirty minutes. So, Chase pulled out his doodle pad and hit play on his phone, drawing the scene before him in the coffee shop. He moved across the plain paper with quick, deft strokes, displaying his years of effort in his profession. The front counter and doors helped him form a reference for scale, and soon the title flooring was in place, followed by the lights and register. Then, he started sketching the employees and customers.

It wasn't until he was adding detail to the cashier's stubbly beard that he felt more than saw Lisa sit down across from him. He closed the pad and looked up at his sister. She was two years younger than he was, but most people wouldn't have guessed they were related at all. His hair was black and thinning whereas she had dirty blonde hair that was extremely curly. His eyes were a steely grey, whereas hers were a light brown. While they had been born with similar skin tones, Lisa regularly visited tanning booths, and so had a darker complexion than he did.

"Hey Chase," she said, smiling broadly at him, flashing perfect, white teeth.

As a child, Lisa had needed braces to correct her teeth, and he become something of a fanatic about them once the braces had come off. Chase had good teeth, but had somehow neglected to visit his dentist in three years.

"Hey yourself," he said, smiling back as he slid the pad back into his backpack. "I see you've been busy."

His eyes had caught the new jewelry bands around her wrists and fingers, though none were on her wedding finger. She winked at him as took a long drink from what was, no doubt, and extremely complicated coffee order.

"I'm not the only one," she said. "You look like you've been having fun lately, even if you dress like you're still in high school."

She gestured to his jeans and t-shirt, which proudly displayed the words: Sarcasm is just one of my many talents.

Chase chuckled softly and took a long drink from his coffee cup, emptying the cup.

"Things have been going really well actually," he said. "Work's been going great and I'm at a new church now. It's a cool place, but small you know?"

Lisa nodded ignoring her phone which was pinging insistently every few seconds.

"So what's the deal with this dream you were telling me about then?"

Chase sighed softly and began to explain his reoccurring dream to her, at least as much as he could explain.