The warm summer breeze blissfully dawned its presence after sunset. The month was August.
The last storm cloud from the recent rain shower had departed and revealed the moon, the magnificent glowing orb in all its glory, hanging in serenity amidst the navy-blue sky, surrounded by twinkling stars. The dark rolling mountains glorified the prairie landscape. Wyoming was a quiet state, not really formed and not really loud, but merely halted to a crawl in its stage of modern industrialization.
*****(A/N) This story is told in flashbacks. This is the first flashback.******
A pickup came to a screeching halt at Grandpa Mason's pond behind his house.
In its heyday, the 1958 Chevrolet Apache, painted a gloss-cherry red and gussied up for show at the auto dealership.
After the Chevy was put away in an old shed around the same time of the Apollo 13 crisis, only to rust to a boxy orange behemoth for two generations, it was rediscovered one spring morning by a curious toddler named Emma. She yanked the tarp off, and innocent excitement arose.
"Daddy, what's that?" She asked her skyscraper of a father.
"That's your granddad's old truck, sweetheart," said the skyscraper.
"It's pretty, Daddy. Can I have it?"
"You'll have to ask your granddad first, baby."
And so years after, the truck, graced with new tires and an oil change, was given to the now rambunctious Emma as a sweet-sixteen birthday gift from her granddad.
Emma jammed her foot on the lever and placed it in park. Izzy sat beside her.
"Well, how am I doing in learning stick?" asked Emma, wiping sweat from her temple.
"Um, you could do better," exclaimed Izzy jokingly, "if you were able to remember to use both feet instead of just one." She giggled. Her voice created in Emma the feelings of calmness and tranquility.
"Oh you're funny. I'll get the hang of it, don't you worry." Emma said with a sarcastic smile.
Silence overcame the two girls.
An owl, hidden amidst the thick leaves of an old black cottonwood tree, hooed loudly without warning, and its call echoed with the breeze as Izzy unbuckled her seat belt. She bent to stare up through the smudgy windshield at the night sky, framed around the branches.
The cottonwood loomed over the pond, as a blanket enwrapping an infant, protecting it from the dangers of mother nature's fury. Bent at a dangerously steep angle, the tree held its ground amidst the wades at the pond's edge.
"This August moon is full tonight."
"It is." replied Emma. "It's so close, you could almost touch it."
Emma slid on the worn tan seating towards the center of the car, closer to Izzy. She glanced at her, hesitated, and began to move back to her side when Izzy held her wrist. She fell prey with amazement and stared.
"Do you think all this is wrong?" asked Emma, with a mystified gaze.
Izzy began to twist a strand of her voluminous golden hair with her finger and glanced at Emma.
"I don't think it is. I like you...more than I should. We have been in secret for such a long time, Emma. I was surprised when you sent that letter, asking me out on a date. But these feelings, I've never felt them more intensely than I do with you."
Emma began to feel butterflies flutter their wings in the abyss of her stomach.
"I do too. I hate having to keep you from my mother. She loves me, yet whenever anything comes up on the news regarding gay rights or stuff like that, she freaks out and takes the obvious side. It bothers me."
She hesitated."Don't you think we should tell at least one of our..."
"No." Izzy affirmed, cutting her off in an unyielding tone.
"The way..." She began to speak in a softer, kindhearted voice. "...the way I feel about you, they wouldn't understand. It's about the same as being an atheist to them."
Emma rolled her eyes and exhaled with despair. She knew this was fact.
"You're right. Forget I asked. People say those like us are sinners. The preacher lectures about it all the time. Izzy, I don't feel this way with a boy. I feel this way with you, and only you."
Izzy's pupils grew massively with heart-wrenched joy.
"Do you believe in love?" questioned Emma.
Izzy tilted her head to let an annoying strand of hair retreat from the itchy spot on her nose. She clung to her lower lip with her upper teeth. She smiled with kind eyes, "I do."
Emma smiled gently and slid right beside her. Izzy crossed her legs. "Mind if I ask you something also?"
"Absolutely."
Izzy gently rested her palm into the comfort of Emma's hand. One unified with the other. "I am taken by you. Do you..." There was a pause.
"Do you love me?"
Emma closed her eyes, felt Izzy stretch to glide her fingers through Emma's shadowy black hair, and they met at the back of her neck.
She whispered, "I do."
Emma didn't get a chance to reopen her eyes, for Izzy's lips met hers with a fiery spark of passion and desire. The world became one as they kissed.
The owl above gave another hoo as the moon brightened the starry night.
