between the symphony of fated things
yet everything that touches us, me and you
takes us together like a violin’s bow
which draws one voice
out of two separate strings
Rainer Maria Rilke
It’s late, moonlight touching her bare shoulders and arms, only a delicate material covering her body. Just some lace and cotton that almost reaches the ground. A fading memory of a summer that once filled her heart. Water brushes against her feet, small waves dancing around still warm skin.
“Don’t you think you should be wearing something more than that silly dress?”
She slowly turns back, light chestnut hair floating in the wind and gliding against her face. Eyebrows furrowing, but a small smile lingering somewhere on the edges of those lovely lips.
“I’m not as brave and reckless as I may seem.”
Her hand lifts and points to a place not far away from them, her fingers unnaturally red from the cold. Slowly, his stare shifts there, expression slightly surprised but both with a mucking manner of sorts. Eyes gazing at a thick long beige sweater with a pair of boots sticking out, buried deep in the wet sand.
“And that’s going to keep you alive after you casually freeze in the next few minutes?”
“Always so dramatic, Robert.”
“Excuse me?”
He asks, confused, and she shakes her head, waving a hand at him as if she wanted to get rid of something unwanted and bothersome.
“Just someone I knew. You seem to share common qualities.”
She moves her pained fingers beneath the collar bone, stroking a silver neckless with a beautiful pendant; old-fashioned warned out, and that seemed to belong to a past life that could no longer speak. Nothing lasts forever, until it comes again, in waves, countless ripples from just one gentle thought.
“You remind me of him.”
“Mmm, equally handsome?”
The wind picks up, and she shivers, but a lost smile lingers in the corners of her lips. She makes a few steps further into the ocean, the water moving just above her ankles. If you stand long enough in the freezing matter, it becomes warm to you. The strangest comfort of all, a blanket you never knew you wanted to have. Slowly, she lowers herself down, sitting with bend knees, her dress darkening as it sinks into the water, dancing around her thighs in an unsteady rhythm.
“What are you doing?”
His voice turns a bit worried, the easy tones gradually disappearing, though he still tries to keep it light.
“Searching for comfort in a forgotten world.”
She answers, not really listening to him, dipping her hands slowly into the water, and waiting for the burning of her skin to turn into heat that almost touches her insides and an empty set of lungs. Dislocated heartbeats, somehow still beating strong. Despite him, despite her and what happened after. It was not all lost, though. She still felt him in her cells, and though she could no longer touch him, he lingered somewhere deep within her, making a permanent home. As if here, but not in any place that she could pinpoint, seeming to be everywhere. In the morning sun, in the rustle of someone’s newspaper, in all the little things she couldn’t even count. There were times where she still would smell him on her skin or feel his warmth on the pillow next to her, radiating everywhere and embracing her as she found herself dozing off back to sleep, stroked by invisible fingertips that wanted to keep her safe.
“You really need to get out of there. I don’t want you on my conscience for the rest of my life. Come on, get out... please?”
She flinches as if she forgot he even existed. Reluctantly, she stands up, legs sore and stiff from the lack of blood movement in her pressed veins. She groans quietly, then looks back at him, in that dark grey, woolen coat. It’s unbuttoned, with a scarf wrapped around his neck a few times. Her stare turns challenging.
“And if I don’t? If I just stay here forever and wait?”
“Wait for what?”
His voice is barely a whisper, and she shakes her head, not hearing his question. He steps a bit closer and repeats the same words as a low sigh parts her pale lips just before any other sounds can form.
“For my stars to catch up with me. It’s been too long, and I need him... if I want to survive. I’m sure you understand.”
“I actually don’t, though I’m trying my best here, woman.”
She notices him getting closer, walking cautiously as if not to scare her. No point, really. It’s not as if she was going to move anyway. Not until a feeling in her guts told her otherwise. He doesn’t know that she has been coming here every day for the last three months. Two years after, she even let herself look at the ocean again.
“This isn’t a suicide mission, Robert. You worry too much.”
“Who the hell is this, Robert? Because it sure ain’t me.”
He sounds frustrated, but she knows that he’s frightened of what she might do. Slowly inhaling, she uncrosses her arms.
“I am all too aware of that. But there is something about you that... feels familiar. I’m not sure what exactly. Maybe it’s your looks, the way you talk, or all the tones in between that you try to hide for some reason? I don’t know, but it’s just how it is.”
Silence covers them for a moment, only the waves crashing around them, brave enough to shout freely.
“It’s Daniel, by the way.”
She blinks, heartbeat jumping a bit, an impossible memory invading the tired mind as she looks up at him, finally frightened of something.
What does the D on the locket stand for?
I have no idea. The woman that sold it to me at the antique store didn’t tell me. She only said that it has a long history and has landed into many hands as if continuously searching for its rightful home.
Wow, she really wanted to make her commission.
Such a disbeliever, love.
“Daniel?”
She repeats faintly, her voice barely breaking through the air that surrounds them.
“Yes.”
He comes behind her, his tones soft as he wraps the sweater around her arms. It makes her shiver but from so many more reasons that she could still think possible. She turns around and takes the kind hand, letting him guide her out of the water and into the dry land. For a second, she meets his stare and notices things that should no longer exist in this life, as the night sky reflects in his dark, almost liquid, caramel eyes.
“What are you looking at so intensely?”
He lifts his eyebrow amused, and she shakes her head, a bit dazed.
“At the constellations, I have known all of my life.”
Her voice turns into a soft whisper as she passes him by, picking up her shoes from the ground.
″...and I never knew I would see them again, yet here you are.”
“Pardon?”
He asks, distracted.
“Nothing, I said it’s really cold. Let’s get somewhere warm before I actually freeze to death and land on your dreadful list.”
“Fine with me, as long as you’ll remember my name from now on.”
“Oh, I think it would be impossible to forget. Trust me.”
She once more glides her hand against the necklace, feeling every dent and line, fingers no longer shaking.
“Good, because I’m more than shared qualities, you know.”
She smiles under the moonlight that breaks through the clouds, gliding their path as they walk next to each other, without any rush or troubled thoughts, taking their time on this strangest of nights.
_____
So here we are set into motion
We’ll steal a car and crash in the ocean
You and I, caught in a fading light
On the longest night...
I was close to a fault line
Heaven knows, you showed up in time
Was it real?
Now I feel, like I’m never coming down