Afterglow

The evening sun broke through the late summer clouds, slowly rousing me, but I did not open my eyes. For a moment longer. I wanted to linger in the happy fantasy that I would not be alone. That for once, she would still be there when I woke.

I knew that she would not be. She never was. But I enjoyed the dream that I would open my eyes and see her there, midnight hair framing her beautiful face as she slept on.

Light played across my face, visible through my eyelids only as shifting colours when the clouds drifted across the setting sun, letting me know that time was ticking on. It waits for no man, no matter how pleasant the dreams he tries to linger in.

Rolling away from the window, I opened my eyes and looked at the disturbed linens where she had slept. At least, I assume she had slept. A pleasant warmth sat comfortably in my chest, the very sensation that told me I had not been alone the whole night. But now there was nothing there but the ruffled sheets to show that she had ever been there.

Other feelings flashed through my body as I looked at the spot she left behind. Memories of her touch against my skin, her smell in my nose, the taste of her on my lips, the sound of her laugh and her pleasure. Memories that would haunt me until next she visited, if I allowed them.

Her spot on the bed was cold, the cold of long absence and disuse. She was so far gone that I could never catch her, as was always the way. Never one to linger, even in a state as pleasant as ours had been when we collapsed together, she was always long... long gone by the time I awoke.

Pushing myself up, I stretched with arms high over my head, eyes closed, casting the memory of her touch in bronze so that I could keep it forever. I never knew when she would return, if she would return. She came and departed on the wind, blowing into and out of my life without rhyme or reason so far as I knew.

Yet her coming was sweet enough to drive out the pain of her going, once the latter had time to fade. I knew what she was, and I knew what she could never be. Mine, no matter how much I might wish it, she could never be.

Glancing towards the window, I pictured her standing there, framed in the golden rays of the setting sun as they broke through the slate grey clouds over the calm sea. Maybe she was out there, out at sea with another person or alone. I longed for the leaves on the branches visible in the foreground to bloom with brilliant flowers, if only so I could remember the dress I had slipped from her shoulders.

On the table beside my bed, a simple brown envelope stood propped against the digital clock. Taking it up, I knew at once that it must be addressed to me though no name adorned it. Neatly over the flap, perfectly positioned, the mark of her lips; exactly the same colour that I knew decorated my neck and face and chest with the soul-same shape.

I opened the envelope and withdrew the simple card. It did not contain any professions that I might have wished for, not from my beautiful wandering spirit. "I will come back to you," it said, signed with a kiss.

Through the window, in the rising smoke from the chimney of a building just further down towards the shore, I imagined I could see her shape. A hand was raised in farewell, as her flowered dress billowed around her knees. I touched the card to my heart, careful not to smudge the kiss against my skin.

Until next I saw her, it was all I had of her. That and the memories of the girl blown to me on the wind and gone just as soon as the summer breeze that carried her.

Slowly, I set the room to rights humming as I did, letting the memories of the night before run circles around my head. Remembering every sensual detail from the window blowing open, leaving her standing before me, to finally collapsing with her in my arms, I felt as though I glowed like the sun.

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Story Word Count: 741

The Prompt: I am participating in the Ekphrastic Challenge hosted by the all-around excellent human, Mackenzie Davis. This story was inspired by the cover photo provided by Andrei Z. who coincidentally received my own photo submission from the random number gods to inspire his entry 'A Boat Trip'

Please go and check out these lovely creators and everyone else who's participated in the challenge! And, as always, thank you for reading :)