Sunset’s Romance & Treachery

Standing at the edge of the pond we watched in silence as the sun faded on the horizon. The water shimmered with the last lights, first a golden orange and then turning to purple ripples that caressed our toes. Our hands found each other’s as the sun’s last edge slipped behind our world.

The clouds now took over and turned the sky into orange, red, and pink cotton that floated peacefully over a world going to sleep. Without a breeze to disturb them they froze in solemn tribute to the descending orb and let themselves change moment by moment, treasuring the warm rays for as long as they were offered.

The day was over and could not be reclaimed. With a squeeze of our fingers we agreed that our journey to this moment was the right choice in a world gone mad. The sun and her sister clouds confirmed our desire to seek them out.

Not speaking, we stood motionless as the clouds released the sun’s light and the world turned gray. With hearts beginning to beat faster we finally cast furtive looks at one another, neither releasing the other’s hand, striving to hold onto the sunset’s memory for a few moments longer as the deadly night grew behind us.

The water touched our toes again, this time dark and already feeling cooler without the sun’s warm rays to gentle the touch. Without speaking we stepped backwards out of the pond and stood with the mud squishing between our toes. It would be a chore cleaning our feet before we could put our socks and shoes on.

And then a slippery mud-covered foot slid across my own and rested there. It was the most intimate moment I had felt in years. Smaller than my own, her foot left its imprint of mud and hope before being drawn back in wondering expectation of my reaction. It was swift! I turned and bent down to her mouth so far below mine to give her the heated kiss that the sun’s rays had heated in me.

It was intended to have been an incredibly passionate kiss and would have knocked her off her feet…if she saw my lips racing to her’s and actually turned her head. She couldn’t and didn’t and I gave her ear the deepest tongue-washing it had of it’s life.

Squalling at the wet-willy, she turned her head to observe me wiping off my mouth, not sure if what I tasted was imagined or real. “A girl could be insulted,” she said. Not letting me respond she moved to my right, lashed out her foot behind my knee, and brought me down into the weeds and mud. Masked by the growing dark she fell on top of me before I could move and unerringly found my mouth with her own.

I was hoping it would lead to further exploration but we were suddenly laid bare by the bright light from a boat on the water. They weren’t waiting for us in the unknowing dark, they had been hiding in the sunset all along.