by Loki

I took another drag on my cigarette, knowing it would be my last for a while. The same wind that dried my sweat and cooled my mind also made it impossible to light another one. One more drag on a butt almost gone, then I tossed it into the waves below. It tumbled, end over end, a small speck of light, suddenly extinguished as it hit the water below. I stared at the point between my boots where it had disappeared as if expecting to see the light reappear, but it didn't.

She sat down beside me, a coil of muscle sliding into the calm spot where my body shielded her from the wind. I offered her a cigarette -- my last -- half-unconsciously. She took it, knowing it was an empty gesture. We sat, silent, enjoying the closeness.

Distant clouds were underlit by the city lights; a million streetlights, glowing apartment windows, car headlights, all added up to an orange-purple glare outlining night-black wisps of cloud against an even darker background. It looked bright as day over there, across the water. I wished for a moment that I was there, amid all that bustling humanity, lost in the constant bustle of useless energy. But only for a moment.

I could feel her warmth, her thigh so close to mine the heat radiating off her made my other side almost numb in comparison. I stole a sidelong glance. Light-brown skin, dark eyes, darker hair. Neither skinny nor fat. I counted lights in the sky, eight of them. Two stars and six airplanes. One of the airplanes winked out as it flew behind a spiral patch of cloud.

She shivered, and I abruptly noticed that the wind had picked up. The waves of heat that had been rolling off her were absent now. I took off my jacket and put it around her shoulders. It was far too big. She held it tight, silently nodding her thanks.

A bus roared by behind us. Smell of diesel, acrid taste in the back of my mouth. Wind subsided for a moment, and in the sudden silence I could hear the breakers below, constantly crashing, then lost again as the wind resumed its howl.

Finally I stood. "Come on," I said, "Let's get some coffee." She nodded, stood, clenched my jacket tighter around her body. We left the waves behind, let the wind sing to itself.

"So," I said as we crossed the parking lot between beach and mall, "What's your name?"

--Loki

Added 09 November 2000

	Go to the main page for Loki
	Go to the main page for The Emerald Sanctuary