Just one last breath

chapter 4

It's been well over a day now, and he has finally been moved back to his hospital bed.

Looking at him, his slightly blue face,in the dull light of the hospital, made me angry.

Having the person I poured my heart and soul to, was slowly fading, and there was nothing I could do about it but stand and watch. Being here, but having no control over what would become of him, being totally helpless, weak, frozen when he needed me the most.

I reached for his hand, taking it in mine.
It was cold, icy if you must. Having all life drained from it. Yet, it still had his feel, his loving touch.

"So since you're not going to tell me where we're going, maybe you could at least give me your name?" I smirked to the stranger sitting next to me, his eyes focused on the road ahead.

He looked at me, then back at the road "since you made me search for your number, it's only fair that I make you guess my name"

"That's totally unfair, I just left the last two digits out, so you have to at least give me a hint" I crossed my arms in defence.

He laughed, "I'll think about it".

I pouted and looked out the window, it had been quite late already, and there were no cars on the road, excluding us. I looked up to the cloudless sky. There was a slight breeze as I could see the grass moving, dancing under the stars.
But it was quite warm in the car, safe from outside due to the air conditioning lying on the little red line to show it's heating.

"NOGAL"

I turned my head from the window to look at him, "what" I said as I frowned at the strange word.

"You asked for my name, so figure it out" he looked at me and winked with his left eye, then giggled, obviously proud of the smart idea he had gotten.

I sat there contemplating about the word, mixing the letters, to try and find a solution.

"Ha" I shouted, "Golan, your name is Golan isn't it?"

He burst out laughing, making me less confident about the word I thought I had figured out.

"Close, but still not there yet, try starting with the letter 'l' "

Hmm... lagon? Lagno? Longa? L... L... Logan?

I turned back to him "logan?"

He smiled, bothering not to look at me, "congrats" he said flashing his glossy white teeth.

"And just in time, we're here" he pointed to a small sign on the side of the road.
No fishing it read.

Fishing? He was taking me fishing?
Not really my idea of a first date..

He took a turnoff on a small dirt road. I gazed up at the tall trees casting shadows over us.

Soon the car came to a stop. He climbed out and walked around, opening my door. I smiled at him, trying to hide my confusion. "Why thank you kind sir"

He walked around opening the back of the car to pull out a basket.
"How did you manage to fit fishing rods in that?"

He looked at me, "I didn't"

"Huh?" I replied

He laughed "well don't just stand there" he grabbed my hand and started pulling me behind him. We walked for a while until we were standing under a huge tree, it's branches were draped over to the ground, the tips floating in the lake.

He directed me to a small canoe "after you" he said, holding his hand out, pointing to it. I slowly climbed in, trying to not loose my balance.

Once I was safely seated, he started pushing it, and jumped in just before it was fully off the ground. He then grabbed the plastic stick that was attached to the side, slowly moving us through the water as he rowed to the left, then to the right.

I looked down. The water was a brownish colour, I watched as it moved to the side when the canoe sailed through, making a sloshy sound as it hit the side.

The canoe stopped as it hit the side of a small island situated in the middle of the lake

He jumped out, then offered me his hand, I took the gesture and slowly started climbing off, but I lost my balance as the water pushed the canoe, causing me to stumble.

"I got you" he said, as I looked up into his eyes. He had caught me? From falling.

He carried me from the little boat onto the island. His shoulders were strong, I couldn't help admire them as my hands were rapped around his neck.

"There you go" he said, slowly letting me back onto my feet. I stood up straight, wanting to say thank you, but no words escaped my mouth, I just stared into his eyes, which were lit by the full moon currently above us.

" well, this is it" he said, looking around.

It was quite big now that we were standing on it, in the middle of the island was another tree, but it's leaves weren't sagging to the floor like the others, instead they were held up strongly.

He walked towards the tree and pulled a blanket from his basket. After pulling it open across the floor, he pulled out a small pillow, and rested it against the trunk.

He then pulled out lunch tins of snacks, and set them down, sitting next to them. Then after rechecking if everything was there, silently ticking the imaginary list in his head, he looked to me and smiled.

I walked over and sat down on the soft material, smiling back at him...

We had finished most of the food. There were chocolate covered strawberries, small triangles of sandwiches layered with peanut butter and jelly, store bought popcorn and an attempt at home made cookies.

We ended up playing a game with the biscuits, because they were too burned and hard to digest. Flinging them over the water, to see who's biscuit hopped the most. I won, but only because he let me, acting weak or throwing them in the wrong direction.

We had settled down now. It was too late to head back to the car, only to be attacked by some vicious animal.

"You look cold?"

"Only a bit" I laughed to try and hide how freezing I really was getting.

He moved up and sat next to me. After taking his jacket off, he rested it over us, as if it was trying to impersonate a blanket.

This was perfect, I smiled, Slowly resting my head on his hard chest.

Looking once more to the stars, I slowly closed my eyes.

This really was...perfect....