The Hour With You

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In two passing words, we had seen the start of a new day.

The clock had turned past midnight, and the stranger and I could claim the acquaintance of two days, yet, all at once, barely two minutes.

'It's a beautiful night,' he said. 'Clear. Calm.'

'Yes,' I agreed without hesitation, for nothing he'd said was untrue.

While my heart may not have been calm, the night was just that, and it made me glad that I had chosen just such a place and evening to reconcile with my tumultuous feelings.

'But, is it calmer alone, or is it calmer shared?' he mused. 'Do two people halve the peace in the air, or do they multiply it?'

'I couldn't tell you.'

'And I couldn't tell you,' he said. 'I think it's one of those things we should innately know, but because we can't tell anyone, we must assume that everyone else also innately knows even if they don't.'

I smiled and surprised myself. How confusing, and how clear a man. He said each word with such confidence that I felt sure he understood them, and therefore, I wanted to understand them, even though I wasn't sure I ought.

That, I thought, was the point of them.

To confuse and delight me.

To distract me.

'Strange,' I said aloud, the word escaped my brain and passed my lips before I could catch it upon my tongue and swallow it back down.

'I agree,' he said. 'It is. Rather, I am. Or, we are.'

'I'm not strange.'

'Perhaps not. Perhaps yes. I couldn't tell you that, either. I only know that you are you, and I am me, and this is strange which is not always a bad thing.'

'How do I know that you're you?' I asked, rising to his ridiculousness. 'How do I know I haven't dreamt you?'

'Why would you dream me?' the ridiculous he asked.

'I might have dreamt it all,' I said. 'I might have dreamt the moon and the stars. I might have dreamt the sea and these stones. I might have dreamt that I'm here on this ridiculous night with a ridiculous stranger speaking ridiculous things.'

'It sounds a ridiculous dream.'

'I believe it is.'

'Hello,' he said again.

'Hello,' I replied.

'Would you mind some company?' he asked.

'I already have some,' I said. 'Some ridiculous company.'

'That,' he said, 'is the best kind to have when you're in a dream.'

The waves cascaded a roaring symphony; rolling, breaking, rising and falling. The clawed their way over the stones with each new swell, determined to find their way ever higher, wanting to swallow I and he and all the glittering town at our backs into its depths. I hugged my knees to my chest and inched my toes forwards, teasing the tide, daring it to take me.

I knew that it would not.

'I've never been in someone's dream before,' he said. 'Should I do something? Say something? Do you think I could fly?'

'I've never flown in a dream,' I said. 'I only seem to fall.'

'Where do you fall?'

'Down,' I laughed.