Adonis
She wanted to tear off the tight black velvet shirt that
held her in. Her breath came fast and short. Her lungs
made a strange sound that was neither a humming nor a
scream. It was unearthly and scared her. Her body was
hurting. Every joint in her nearly six foot frame ached.
Her chestnut-haired head was throbbing and she couldn't see
out of her blue eyes because the tears came too fast. She
began to wail. A scream of anguish filled the small car.
Her throat was dry and with each scream, her voice became
more hoarse. After the sixth emission of sorrow, her voice
broke and died, refusing to allow another wail. Her body
sunk. Feeling like a child's swim ring with all the air let
out, everything in her collapsed. Her torso fell to her
knees. She gasped for air and hid her red and quickly
swelling face in her ebony velvet pants, saturating them
with her tears. She began to tremble. Her legs jumped by
themselves and her head was quivering so much that it looked
like she was stuck shaking her head "no." Slowly she sat
up to a sitting position and pulled her long legs up to her
chin then fell into a fetal position. Her hair covered her
face and created a curtain that allowed no light to
penetrate. She felt like she was about to die. Her fingers
trembled as she tried in vain to make her legs stop their
spastic movement by massaging her calves as best she could.
For a few short seconds, her legs calmed and her normal
breathing returned. Then the reality of the tragedy hit her
again. She shot up and yelped as though she had been
stabbed in the back by a tiny person inside the seat. She
began to stomp her feet on the floor of the car and sob
convulsively. She could not breathe. In a panic, she
rolled down the window of the car and shoved her entire head
outside into the icy night. The cold air hit her in the
face like a sheet of steel. She deeply inhaled the oxygen
she hadn't been able to get before. The frigid air stung
her lungs and chafed her throat. Gasping and heaving, she
opened her eyes and looked at the sky. It was ethereal. It
looked to her like a huge black sheet that had tiny holes
poked in it so that only small streams of light could shine
through. She had never seen the sky as she did then. For
several moments, she was calm and soaking in the beauty of
the sky in front of her. She
remembered his face and began to shake even more than she
had before. Suddenly, she could see herself as though she
was floating fixed above the car. She saw her blotchy, red
cheek out of the side of her hair. The wind removed the
shroud for a split second. She gasped in horror when it
revealed her twisted, maniacal, bugged-out eyes and her
mouth curved into a sardonic, insane scream from which no
sound came. From her position above the car, she put her
hand over her mouth to muffle a screech. As suddenly as it
had happened, she returned to her body and was inside the
car shaking like a leaf. Her entire body was tingling.
Asleep. She moved her hands over her numb body, trying to
figure out what was happening in her. As she touched her
stomach, her fingers fell asleep as well. For the remaining
ten miles, she laid lethargic and crying in the backseat.
Her eyes were fixed out the window, rarely blinking. In her
mind's eye, she saw him again. As real as he had been just
the day before. In her silent open-eyed dream, he reached
his had out to her with his usual playful grin. She came to
him and embraced him. She towered above him in her black
pumps, so she knelt and removed them. For what seemed like
hours, they embraced. They spoke no words but the words
only a touch can say. She cried softly into his neck, but
her sobs where gone. As she drew a deep breath, inhaling
the comforting familiar scent of him, he pulled her closer
and whispered "Please don't cry, I'm happy now" into her
ear. She lightly pushed him away so she could look at him.
His cocoa eyes were clear and bright and sparkled like black
diamonds. She opened her mouth to ask him how he could be
happy under the circumstances, but he pulled her closer than
he had before. His grip loosened as he meticulously faded
into the background, leaving her standing there alone.
Right before he vanished completely, he said ever so
quietly, "Remember, don't cry, I'm happy and waiting for
you."