Yard Sale of Thoughts

I could lie to you,” Dave cleared his throat and continued, “tell you the sky was overrun,” then slid his hand under the hem of my skirt, “but the truth is she’s bald tonight.” He finished the sentence with a series of tiny kisses as if creating his own constellations on my flesh.

I had to grin because with this one, I was missing nothing. I could smell the first blooms on the trees, and when I shifted to sit on his lap, I could hear the familiar creak of park bench.

“Love has no regrets.” I said, unbuttoning his shirt at a leisurely pace. The woodsy fragrance on his chest overpowering all else. It was an aftershave I’d purchased for our first anniversary. I traced his jawline, the bones of his neck, the hairs on his chest. A pattern becoming more familiar. What need did I have for stars when there was a galaxy before me?

“This place empty yet?” I said when my lips found his ear; my hands his buckle.

“We’ve got company, Libby. Don’t flinch.” Dave swallowed hard.

I tried to listen to pick up on what he was seeing, but the squirrel were chasing each other up the bark behind our bench muffling all other noise.

Thinking this was part of tonight’s play, I tugged at his belt buckle, but Dave caught my wrist. Would he deny me the thrill of an audience?

Fast footsteps. were approaching off the path, crashing through the undergrowth made Dave flinch.

“What are you two doing here? The voice sounded harsh and was followed by a kick to the back of our bench. I felt Dave’s hand tense. His heart rate increased, but it wasn’t for the usual reasons.

Dave spoke, but his voice sounded weaker than I remembered it.“We didn’t see anything. I promise. We’ were too busy with each other.” The hand on my wrist tightened.

Dave seemed to have lost his words, so I tried to turn my face toward’s the stranger and speak.

“We’re officially sorry officer, or whoever you are. We didn’t mean to be here after closing. I lost my stamina on the trail, you see, and I asked my partner Dave to let me rest a bit longer on this bench. We must have lost track of time.”

I leaned my head to Dave’s chest. We’d been running this same charade for months, so it didn’t surprise me if we were about to pay a fine or maybe worse have to go down to the station for questioning.

I was the one addicted to park crashing. Dave just went along with it because he knew it made me happy to break the rules. Besides, it was simple enough. We’d enter a public park close to dusk and head out on easy trail until we found a secluded park bench. Then wait for dark to be our cover.

“Dave?” I hit his chest to try and revive him.”Tell the ranger it was me. Tell him how I lost my stamina and I… I made you stop so many times along the trail we didn’t make it back to our car in time.”

The stranger set down something heavy on the ground behind the bench. He reached down to get get something that made Dave start to shake.

“You can let her go. His hand flicked hard on my nose. See, she can’t even see you. She can’t see nothing.”

I felt his lips press into my flesh. Harsh and intense. A goodbye kiss. Then, I heard a click followed by a firework of heat and sound as a bullet before the pillar of my life turned sideways.

I tried to find the bullet hole, while I waited for my turn. I don’t know how long the stranger stood in front of me, but when he turned to leave, I listened to the pattern of his footsteps as far as I could until the damn squirrels returned to to their squabbling on the branches.

Left for dead, I pressed my face into Dave’s still chest to muffle the screams.

© 2024 | K.Hartless

Cover Art: Lovers on the Seine II by Rolf Harris