Firewatch: A Spark

Firewatch: A Spark - Part 2

The sun had set and empty beer cans littered the coffee table in front us. Delilah was perched to my right, sitting in an old armchair I had picked up off the side of the road a few years back. It took ages to clean but damn, it was worth it. At this point we had come to terms with our drinking pace and instead of retrieving beer from the fridge every few minutes we had placed the box next to the table.

"You know, you're better looking then I thought you would be" honestly she was. I figured she'd be more average looking. But she wasn't, I mean maybe the booze is talking but she was down right gorgeous.

Delilah chuckled "Really now? What did you expect?" She lifted an eyebrow and tilted her head to the side as she pursed her lips in a 'well?' kind of look.

"I don't know honestly. I never really tried to put a face to the voice." Bullshit, I mean I tried a few times that summer but I could never really do it. What does Delilah look like? She looks like Delilah.

"Well I did a pretty good job with you. I mean it wasn't perfect but I was able to sketch you out pretty good" She took a sip of beer.

"I don't know, I saw that drawing in your tower of me and honestly I think you did a better job drawing Turt."

"Hey I'm better at drawing animals than humans" she responded defensively.

"That's for sure"

"Oh like you could do better" she stuck her tongue out at me.

"No, I'm a writer not an artist." I stuck my tongue out in retaliation.

"Whatever. How's Turt anyways?" She held eye contact as she took another drink.

"Oh he's on a new adventure, I let him go in a creek on the way back from Shoshone, somewhere around the Colorado border". I matched her with a gulp of my own.

"I'm sure he's having a good time exploring new lands that aren't burning."

"Yeah it looked like there were a bunch of plants for him to munch on"

"Don't turtles eat meat?"

"I don't know, there was some bugs there too. Plus he didn't mind the leaves and fruit I was giving him at the tower."

"Huh, the more you know I guess."

"Yeah, either way I think he's fine" I knocked back the aluminum vessel to claim its final drops of alcohol before crushing it and tossing it to the graveyard of its brothers. I reached into the cardboard box to find it lacking additional beverages.

"Well fuck" I mumbled. I picked up the box and shook it just to make sure there wasn't any hiding from me. There wasn't.

"Well fuck" Delilah replied as I tossed the empty box towards the kitchen. "What are we going to do now?"

"Beer run?" I asked, I mean honestly at this rate I wouldn't have minded a few more brews. I wasn't THAT drunk, ok maybe I was.

"You can go get it, I'm comfy here." Delilah sank further into the chair. Tipping back the last of her share before discarding it onto table. The last beer gone. "Do you have anything else here? Like liquor of some sort?"

"Isn't the saying Beer before Liquor never sicker?" I thought that was the saying or maybe beer before liquor you're all clear? I don't know, I think Beer first results in shitty hangovers.

"Don't be a bitch Henry, you're a man, you can take it" her smart ass is starting to show.

I sighed, "I think I have something else around here, going out sounds like a lot of work anyway." I shifted my weight forward as my body managed to find its way vertical.

"That's more like it. You have anything good?" She watched me fight to gain my balance, waiting for me to topple. Some sort of tasteless joke waiting for the right moment to remind me of my lack of coordination. But I held my footing and her blunt humor remained dormant. For now.

I made my way into the kitchen, and opened the cupboard above the sink. I pulled out a bottle of Major Bueno's "Special" Tequila and held it out towards her much like a waiter presenting a bottle of wine at an italian restaurant.

"Is that my-"

"Straight from the Thorofare Lookout tower" I did my best to slur out my words in some form of entitled accent in an attempt to make the bottle seem fancy and imported.

"Are you that cheap that you had to steal my Tequila?" Delilah started to chuckle. Her smile welcoming the promise of hard liquor.

"Well I had some weak sense of hope that I'd actually get to see you back at the trailhead, figured we could have shared it after a shit day like that." I figured I might as well be honest. I was pretty fucking disappointed she didn't care to wait for me.

"Hey, you know I'm sorry about that right?" Her smile began to fade.

"I'm not sure why I thought you would have. It's not who you are." My body swayed slowly from side to side as I stood there looking at her. Silence began to fill the void forming between us. She stared at me, I could see pain returning to her. We remained like this for only a moment but at that time it seemed like an eternity. Finally she spoke.

"You're right, it's not. But for some obscene reason I came to visit you." Her voice was starting to get hoarse again. She stood up and began a slow drunken shuffle towards me. Swinging her hips with each step. "For some reason I felt like shit for leaving you behind". She continued her advance. "For some reason I felt empty, like something was missing". She stopped in front of me, her eyes locked on mine. She carefully swung one arm around my neck, followed by the other. "For some reason, I felt like I needed you". Her body pressed up against mine, as her lips drew closer.

I set the bottle on the counter, the woman in front of me was demanding my full attention. With a drunken haze controlling my body, multi tasking was not an option. Either I would have dropped the bottle or I would have dropped her, both a tragedy I had to prevent.

With her lips millimeters from mine, she paused and took a breath in. Sucking the life from within me. I could smell the alcohol radiating from her, intoxicating me further. Beckoning me closer into her current embrace. Although I already knew her answer, I figured I'd end the stalemate.

"Do you need me?" I asked.

She replied the only way she could.