Based on the song Five Days In May by Blue Rodeo
He stood in the sheltered area of the bus stop, listening to the dull sound of rain pounding down onto the roof of the station and looking out into the chaos of the hurricane. She walked brusquely to anywhere that could protect her from the incessant coastal rain and wind, anywhere to take her away from reality. That anywhere happened to be the bus stop where he stood.
Their eyes met, and nothing was ever the same again.
He couldn't look away from those eyes. There was just... something about them. She gave him the ghost of a smile, looking down at her notepad and scribbling something down, her delicate hands dancing over the paper.
A bus showed up, wheels sliding in the icy rain. She stood, ready for it to take her somewhere, anywhere. Before she stepped on, she pressed a crumpled and rain-dampened note into his hand with a lingering gaze. He looked on, staring for quite a while after she left. He wished that bus could take him somewhere too, somewhere where she was.
After the hurricane ceased its destruction, he sat in his car in front of an apartment building, waiting, hoping. Tree branches and fallen leaves littered the street, puddles of water supported in the uneven dips of the road. She stepped out of the building and into the cold, sprinting out in a mad dash to beat the rain.
Once the door slammed behind her, making the car vibrate with its force, they sped off. Down to where it wouldn't rain, where they could escape for a while.
Her white dress dampened as they played in the surf, hands linked, not a care in the world. He dived into the waved, kicking and splashing madly, making a silver-tinted laugh escape her lips.
He loved her laugh.
The brilliant orange sunset was illuminating the golden sand and her brown gossamer hair. His foot traced curling letters in the wet sand, with no intention of according the letters into a word. He only noticed it was her name once it was written.
When she kissed him, her lips tasted of sunshine and sea spray. His hands were in her hair and hers traced the lines around his mouth. Neither of them wanted the moment to end.
Night fell, and they returned to his car. Both were enveloped in a satin silence, which was in no ways uncomfortable as they looked out into the ebony darkness.
Before she returned to her lonely apartment, she made him promise to take her back to where her name was written in the sand.
He promised.
They returned, again and again, for those five days in May. Each time made the stars glow brighter in the sky. At least, for them. They were trapped in their own little bubble, hidden away from the cold waters of reality. They swam in their own ocean, with warm water and sunshine, away from the rest of the world.
It's difficult to tell why they stayed that way for so long, while others' loves plummeted. Their secret love stayed strong, every day exciting and new. It was an adventure for the both of them.
You could try to figure out why their relationship bloomed while everyone else's withered. But it could take a while, for it was hard to tell. There was no explanation to it. Their relationship was complicated in the simplest way, and it just was while others' wasn't. There was nothing to it, but also, there was lots. They both knew that they had lives outside of their springtime paradise, but neither of them wanted to go back to that loneliness that cut their hearts into slivers so fine. Both were living merely on nerves and that bittersweet pain of knowing that no matter how many t fell while they stood, no matter how much they loved each other—yes, love—it would all come crashing down in a flurry of gold, and their time spent together would fade into a beautiful memory.
But for them, it was enough.
On the fifth day, they sat curled up on the white sand, watching night clutch the sky in its raven talons, watching the sunset give way to nighttime on the beach. The sky was a dazzling sapphire, like a silken cloth, and stars were hole-punched in the fabric. It was surreal, almost ethereal, and they were both contented knowing that they could share the moment with each other.
It was the night she told him she loved him, and the night he said the exact same thing.
And in that moment, he knew that she was the one.
Warm water lapped at their toes, a sharp contrast to the midnight air. Again, he wrote her name in the sand, but he was aware of it this time. They held onto each other for one last time, before they returned to reality.
Then, grey storm heads covered up their royal blue sky, and they both just ran away. Rain spattered against his windshield of his car as they drove South, and they were thrown into the embrace of silence.
And before they returned to lonely reality, she made him promise that he would see her face again, and take her to where her name was written in the sand, even if it was an illusion, a figment of his imagination. A dream.
And again,
He promised.
Don't you remember that, Phaedra? When I promised? Because I do. I remember every word we said.
I know my past. You were there, too. In every single thing I've done.
So come back. Come back to where your name was written in the sand. I made a promise, and I'm a man of my word.
Come back, and we can repeat those five days in May all over again.
