Bits and Pieces

Fading Colors

Weekly prompt #10 for Chick Lit's weekly prompt contest:

The world was quiet. Everything seemed to float around me in a stand-still of time itself. The air bent around my body as I stepped outside, thick and humid in the Maine summer air. My long, dark hair swayed gently in the evening summer breeze, pulling small bits and pieces away from my ears and around my face.

Everything was quiet as I placed one bare foot in front of the other, stepping softly over the cool grass. A wind made the ocean sway back and forth, like the lullaby that put me to sleep for so many nights.

It was hard to think it was my last night. The last night before I left the cool grass, the swaying ocean, the gentle breeze and the fresh Maine air.

I inhaled deeply, pulling the sweet smelling air into my lungs and letting it out again.

It was easy to let my mind slip into a place, a place where I was staying and never had to leave. Never had to let go.

I stepped farther out onto our land, the land that had been my home for just over a year now. I felt my eyes fill with warm, salty tears as I scanned the horizon. The sun was at that strange place it gets, when it is not quite up but has not quite set.

A steady breeze flew across the surface of the water and up onto the grass. It tugged playfully at the hem of my yellow sundress and rustled the leaves in the trees.

I wandered farther down to the ocean, standing at the edge of the shore. A wave curled around the sand I stood on, splashing icy water on my feet.

I sucked in a sharp breath, but stayed put. If this was the last time I was going to be standing right here, right now in this very moment, I wanted to drink it in as much as I could. The sun began to sink below the horizon, lighting up the sky in brilliant colors.

As the sun finally dipped below the ocean, one single green flash went off in front of me. I sucked in my breath in awe. The green flash had always been a myth, but here I was, witnessing it first hand, on my last night.

It's like a sign, I couldn't help but think. But I shook my head and brushed the thought away with it, ignoring what had just flashed through my mind. A thought as brief as the green I had just seen.

I finally brought myself to step away from the water's edge and wander back onto my land. Soft guitar music floated in my direction, and my legs seemed to walk in the direction of it without me making them.

I sighed. There he was, sitting in the middle of his property, a guitar positioned on his crossed legs, and a jar with fairy lights illuminating his face. I considered turning around, leaving before he'd seen me, but it was too late.

"Tabitha."

He only said it once, but my name on his tongue was like a sharp blow directly to my stomach. A nest of butterflies erupted and began to flutter sporadically around.

"Hey, Jack," I said. The light was dimming, but I knew he could see the smile that was curving my lips.

"What brings you here on this fine evening? Couldn't stay away from me?"

Jack had always been a charmer, even a bit of a player, but I had always caved to his sense of humor.

"You wish," I told him. "But I was just going for a walk. On my last night."

It only took the small addition of four tiny words to the end of my sentence, for the mood in the air to change drastically. Jack looked down at the guitar in his hands and shook his head.

"Join me?" he asked.

"Gladly."

I told my legs to stop shaking and ordered my feet to move towards him, where I sat down slowly across from him on the grass.

"This one is for you, Tabitha," he said, positioning his guitar in the proper playing position. He began to strum his guitar softly, and I was glad for the lack of light so he couldn't see the color rise to my cheeks.

The night had almost fully set in. The sky was a brilliant pink color just above the horizon, and a crescent moon glowed brightly above us. Stars glittered in the night sky like diamonds. Fireflies blinked around us in the tall grass, small beacons of hope lighting up the dark. A flock of seagulls flapped by, silhouetted against the fading pink. And music trickled softly from Jack's guitar as he began to sing in a voice, a voice I knew so well.

Oh, to see without my eyes

The first time that you kissed me

Boundless by the time I cried

I built your walls around me

White noise, what an awful sound

Fumbling by Rogue River

Feel my feet above the ground

Hand of God, deliver me

Oh, oh whoa whoa is me

The first time that you touched me

Oh, will wonders ever cease?

Blessed be the mystery of love.

I looked at Jack. Barely any light was left in the sky, and I could hardly see his face. But I didn't need to see it to understand what he had been saying when he had told me that that song was for me. And I felt stupid. Stupid I was leaving this town to go toward bigger things, stupid that I hadn't seen it all along. Stupid I had been chasing other dreams when the perfect one was sitting right here, right in front of me.

Through the night, through the dark, even though we couldn't see, we looked into each other's eyes. They say that love itself is blind. You should be able to know love, even if you can't see clearly. I couldn't see Jack, but I could feel his breath on my lips as he leaned in closer to me, and finally when he closed the distance between us and put his lips on mine.

How could I leave now, when everything I could ever need or want was right where I was?

Song: Mystery of Love by Sufjan Stevens