volume 1(of 4)

I slowly closed my eyes, replacing the bright fabric of stars with a claustrophobic blackness.

"What just happened?"

It still didn't make much sense to me. All the memories from the past hour, or two... came crashing together creating one vividly insane nightmare.

We were walking barefoot in the park, Tabitha and I, hand in hand, over the cool wet grass. it had been a record breaking summer day, reaching 104 degrees. Hot enough to cause the Dairy King to run out of ice cream by 5. Luckily, it cooled off as the sun set and made the evening sublimely warm.

It must have been about 10 o'clock when were lying on our backs in the middle of Wells park, talking endlessly about our idea of a perfect day and our favorite character in Christopher Robins neighborhood. Our trains of thought were liquid, flowing from one topic to another without warning.

Then, as if our part in the night opera was over, the conductor of life cut us off.The park was lifeless for that instant. That moment stretched out, limitless. As soon as it was quiet, the next movement began. The sounds of the night took over. Owls trying to figure out exactly who was responsible, the sharp scratch of raccoon claws on the rough bark of trees, the hum of the solitary luminescent street light We had been in the park for over an hour and not seen a soul. Roswell was a lonely town after nine thirty.

I turned my head to my right to pull in Tabithas subtle beauty. Her imperceptibly tanned legs, along with the rest of her body, were superbly sculpted with specia attention to detail. Across her left knee, there was a reddish scar from a knife attack, the only imperfection I knew of on her sacred temple of a body.

She acquired that scar her freshman year from Sean, a boy that was madly obsessed with her. He was determined to have her and when she turned him down for at least the twenty eighth time, he cracked. He threatened her with a large hunting knife he had pulled out of his jacket and when she screamed for help, he lunged towards her. In self defense, she kicked him in the crotch with her steel toed combat boots.

Understandably, he went down hard but not before he slashed out with the knife. It took over thirty stitches to close the wound. He ended up in a private mental institution. "Turned out he had a giant shrine constructed for me. In other circumstances, I would have been flattered" she told me later. I was the first boy she had let into her world since that attack over three years ago.

She was wearing the same pair of form fitting cut-off jean shorts that she had been wearing when we first kissed. Her bellybutton was peeking over the metal buttonon her shorts. Her shirt a small button up affair, was covered with midnight black stars inside delicate pink bubbles. The shirt was made out of a semi-transparent material that made it possible to see her simple white under shirt. It covered her full breasts and provided a negative background for the stars. A simple red ribbon was tied around her long graceful neck.

Yet what always caught me about Tabby was her eyes.

Her alluring eyes. The eyes that had the mystical ability to change color with her mood. One day they were hued in pumle like Elizabeth Taylors, the next they were as green as the grass we were lying upon. Those eyes fascinated me. I dreamed of those eyes, filled with colors. I had spent hours just wishing I could stare into them.

My eyes slid closed, trying to imagine what it would be like to live in her eyes when I noticed a slight sigh from Tabby. I opened them to look over to her, intrigued by the sigh. Her eyes were a pale blue-green, searching the endless night sky, when they slowly slid over to look at me. She had felt my bewildered stare. She propped herself up on her elbows and looked me straight in the eyes. Her eyes drew me in, into a foreign world.

Just like Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde, our eyes spoke in a language few will ever understand. ln that moment1 everything I knew, everything I didn't know, none of it mattered.

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