An Island Unto Himself (part 3)

Jade Green looked over the land deciding which was the biggest priority.  He glanced at the sky only to realize the sun was dipping toward the western horizon.  He decided the first thing was to get his things from the car, get the generator running to the cabin --if it will even start after all these years.

He walked around the cabin to a shed behind it.  It was situated just beyond the house on a path from the back door.  Though the cabin itself looked to be in disrepair, at least on the outside, this shed had the look of being attended to.  He opened the door on its freshly oiled hinges and was surprised to find the generator to be clean, in good repair, and filled with petrol.  There was a note taped to the side.

He read, "I figured you would be coming back.  This is the best I can do on short notice."  It was unsigned but there was only one person who would have done this.  It seemed he had one alley on this rock.  He folded the note and stuffed it in his jeans.  It took him only a moment to get it running.

Jade entered the cabin long enough to make sure anything that should be off was and turned on a light in the front room in case it took him till after dark to hike to his car and back with his supplies.

As Jade trekked the overgrown lane to where he parked his car just off the main road, he thought that maybe his first priority should be to clear the road so he could drive up to the cabin.

He reached the rented car, pulled a bedroll out and a couple plastic sacks of food.  It was enough to get by till he could go into town and stock up on supplies.  He was looking forward to the shock on the peoples faces to realized he had kept his promise to return.

He reached the cabin as the sun was touching the sea.  Colors shot out to embrace the clouds dotting the sky.  First deep reds from crimson to near purple flooded the clouds then they darkened as the sun sank below the horizon.  The sky went from a soft sky blue to deepen to a royal blue that blended into black.  Though the western sky still had a fading light, the eastern sky was already black with stars starting to pop.  Twilight fell fast on the island.

Jade let the dusk settle around him without moving.  He hadn't experienced an island sunset in twenty years.  He'd forgotten the range of colors or the scale of how it affected him.  He didn't know if he was happy or not that a beautiful sunset still affected him in his soul.  He'd forgotten what it was like to feel much of anything.  He wondered if he would ever be able to feel more than the anger that had burned inside his soul for so long.

He didn't want revenge.  What would be the point?  What was done was done but he wanted the people of this place to know that the past wasn't dead though and neither was he.  This was his home and he was back to claim it.  He turned his back on the darkening sky, entered the cabin and shut the door.