Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer
She makes love to him in the long grass that encircles the base of the old stone lighthouse in a moat of shivering green. His untrained skin too it quivers. Though her hands they grip and caress as her passion it distills and smooths him and the sun it rolls at her back.
He opens his eyes and his teeth bite at each other and muted hues they stream through the dried twigs and spring petals that twist and trap in her hair. His fingers play out and pull in the rocking of her hips and he gets lost in the sweat and he loses her words as she whispers.
“What did you say?”, his words grasp for they know it is vital this thing that he missed.
Smiling, she rolls from his embrace and drifts over the strewn detritus of their clothes and she bolts to the now open door that punches the foot of the tower.
Instantly he follows, he bounds the cling staircase which curls up so narrow that it is hardly but there. No ornate rails protect his ascent as he draws to the acrid sweet scent of their love and the beautiful wisp blur of her form.
His pace does not ease even as he flies missing slab steps that glimpse the dark void which now pulls up from the unseen floor far below. And his arms they pump at his side.
“What did you say?”, he calls out. His words harassing the play of her feet as they dance ever on and up.
Her reply falls but still it hides and a child it weeps from up high.
He flows through the pollen blown blast that stabs through the deep recessed slot of a window and it fingers the mote stew of the void. And the staircase it widens at his feet.
But the man does not notice as he too does not notice the wet leaves that are stuck to the thick glass that offers a soft light to this path he continues to pound.
“I love you with all of my being”, his flotsam words how they warm at her ears. And she smiles and cries for this man that bites at her heels.
This man who now pauses and steadies his hand on the gnarled wrought-iron rail that thankfully appears and for the very first time he looks down and not up. Down to his feet and though they are bloodied and his veins they bulge and snake he is buoyed as he again catches her voice. And a thin warmth it sweeps through the stone and it feels so good at his face.
There are voices, not just hers. Familiar, family that pull his weary carcass and beckon it up from the dark. They are laughing or is that screams that fall as he climbs and his knees crack and they ache.
He stumbles and like that there are no more steps to be had.
Here at the top the flames of the beacon they pinch the sag skin of his face and ancient ice it dances in fluted twists. The fire is orange and crackling white and she lays with hands draped from its centre.
Exhausted he slumps and with his back to the warm touch of the plinth at the base of the pyre and he holds his loves hand as it burns.
“Come with me”, she breathes into the cold night.
And again he follows her whisper.
For me this is an honest depiction of love than the idealistic dream we are sold all the time by Hollywood. It’s not all shiny and it doesn’t always work out – even when the love is there. Sometimes we can’t follow or be followed.
I think there is always something to be gained from the journey. Even if the lining may not always be silver.
Absolutely, couldn’t agree more.
Surreal and, again, beautiful language used to describe such which, I believe, is horrible.
Thank you David. Try as I might I just can’t write happy stories :). But this one was never intended to be horrible. Rather a ham-fisted allegory about life and love and death.
I followed your writing here from Tumblr. Loving how you pulled me along with the Story. What did she tell him at the beginning?
That’s great that you took the time to follow Emma… very much appreciated. You’ll really will find a diverse selection of awesome writers and stories here. I’d suggest you dig back into the archives…. word of warning though – you may not come back 🙂 For me she whispered the same thing at the beginning that she did at the end -“Come with me” 🙂
It was wonderful how you managed to capture this couples entire life within so few words. Or at least I think that is what happened. Beautiful
That was exactly what I was aiming for Andreavolpe. For this journey up the tower to mirror their unfolding life together… through all the season until the very end.
Thanks Hari, neat flash. Although not sure I completely caught the flow. But “Make me a cup of tea” is my guess for her lost words….
Thank you DJ, glad you enjoyed it…”…no milk, no sugar” 🙂