Last Sunset - J. Morris (ebook reader with highlighter .TXT) 📗

clasped together, she prayed to the sky.
“It’s really happening, isn’t it?” said Kate.
Steven felt no requirement to answer.
“It’s funny isn’t it?” she said.
“What is?”
“It’s funny that it took that… thing up there to bring us together today.
Before all this happened, we couldn’t even pick up the phone to say ‘Hi.’”
Steven nodded. “I’ve been miserable without you, Kate. And being here
with you now, I know that I’d rather spend just one more day with you than
my whole life without you.”
“Oh, what have we done, Steven? We’ve wasted so much time, and now
there’s so little left. What are we going to do now?”
Steven thought for a few seconds. “Whatever we want,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, let’s go out somewhere. Let’s have some fun, just you and me.”
“What are you talking about? You mean like a date? With all this happening
around us? That’s ridiculous.”
“Why? Yesterday’s in the past. Tomorrow’s not coming. Let’s just have
today, together. There won’t be another chance. Come on, Kate, let’s do it.”
She thought for a few seconds. “Alright, then,” she said, unconvinced, “but
I don’t think it’s going to be much fun. I’ll get my bag.”
It was almost 9.00AM when they stepped out the front door into a perfect
summer day. There wasn’t a cloud in sight, and a gentle breeze rustled the
leaves on the maple tree in the front yard. Kate scanned the skies. Steven
opened the passenger door for her.
She hesitated as she looked at the neighbours. There were three children,
quiet and sullen, five adults hugging, and the old woman still hysterical.
“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” said Kate.
“Come on, Kate,” said Steven. “We can’t help them.”
Kate got in, and Steven shut her door and went around to the driver’s side.
He fired up the Nissan pickup’s engine and reversed out of the driveway.
He noticed Kate’s look of sadness as she watched her neighbours in their
grief. He screeched the tyres and pumped the throttle in and out to make the
car jerk along as though he couldn’t work the clutch properly. Kate
squealed as the car jerked down the street. “Stop it! What are you doing,
you idiot! Stop!” she shouted. Her head was thrown back and forth; her hair
falling across her face. “Stop! Stop!” she shouted, trying to punch his arm,
but Steven just laughed. Finally, after about 50 yards, he held the car
smooth and steady, and Kate fixed her hair. She stared at Steven with a
deadpan expression.
“What’s that look for?” he said, releasing the steering wheel to raise his
hands in innocent surrender. “You knew I was a bad boy before you got in
the car.” He replaced his hands on the wheel.
Kate chuckled and slapped his arm. “You idiot. You never really did grow
up, did you?”
“That’s what you love about me,” he replied, looking at the road ahead. He
didn’t see her subtle nod, as she looked across at him with a familiar
fondness.
“So, where are you taking me?” she asked.
“Somewhere special.”
Their route took them through the centre of town. Being a small coastal
town, it had escaped much of the lawlessness and violence of the larger
cities, but there were still broken shop windows, jimmied doors, and
vandalised, burning cars. As they crept down the main street, Kate saw a
car on the street in front of a house with a hose pushed onto the exhaust.
The other end entered the car through the passenger window, the gap sealed
by duct tape. Slumped against the window in the front seat were a man and
woman, aged in their forties, in a rigid embrace, and a child of nine or ten in
the back.
Steven touched her shoulder. “Don’t look, Kate,” he said, and she turned
away.
Five minutes out of town, the Ferris wheel came into view.
“You’re taking me to the amusement park?”
“That’s where we went on our first date, remember?” he replied.
“Do you think it’s open?” she asked.
“We’ll soon find out.”
They entered the large carpark and saw only four other cars. There didn’t
appear to be any activity in the park itself. Steven parked the car near the
entrance, went to Kate’s side, and opened the door for her.
“Let’s go, Babe,” he said.
“Babe? You haven’t called me that since we were teenagers.”
“Well,” he said, “today we’re teenagers. We’re on a date, remember?”
Kate’s face glowed, and she took hold of Steven’s hand. “Come on then,
let’s go,” she said.
A balding, gruff looking man in his sixties sat in the entry booth.
“I wasn’t sure the park would be open,” said Steven as he approached the
window. “I thought everyone might be spending the day with family or
friends.”
“I got no family,” he replied in a gravelly voice, “just this place. I was
hoping that I’d get a few more customers today, see a few people laughing,
but there hasn’t been many.”
“Sorry to hear that,” said Steven. He pulled his wallet from his pocket, but
the old man pointed to the sign in front of the booth.
Kate read the hand-written sign aloud. “Everything free today. Normal
prices resume tomorrow.”
She looked up at the old man. “Oh, that is so bad,” she grinned, shaking her
head.
“Hey,” he shrugged, “what can I say? I always wanted to be a comedian,
but I made a better carnival operator. So, here’s the deal. Everything is free:
food, rides, ice creams, everything. I’m the only one working today, so just
help yourselves. There’s only one rule. If I see any frowns or tears today”—
he pointed his thumb toward the carpark—“instant ejection from the park.
By the way, do your parents know you’re out?”
Kate laughed. “Funny guy. I like you.”
“You’re the second woman to say that. The first was my mother.”
Steven held out his hand. “I’m Steven, by the way, and this is Kate.”
“Benny,” he replied, and they shook hands.
“Thank you, Benny,” said Steven.
“You’re welcome. Have fun.”
Kate took Steven’s hand and dragged him on. “What first?” she asked.
Steven spotted a burger stand. “I’m starved,” he said. “You want a burger?”
“Mm, yes, please.”
Steven went behind and threw some patties onto to the preheated grill. He
prepared the buns while they cooked.
Kate leaned on the counter and watched. “You missed your calling in life,”
she said.
Steven handed her a burger on a napkin, and a Coke. “Here, take this to
Benny.” He watched her as she walked toward the booth and wished they
had reconnected sooner. A lifetime was too much to pack into one day.
The famished pair finished their meal in no tim and strolled down Sideshow
Alley.
“Win me that big bear,” she said, as they approached the sledgehammer
strength tester. Steven looked up at the bell, high on the tower. “No sweat,”
he said, and flexed his bicep. “I just hope I don’t break it.” He looked at
Kate and wiggled his eyebrows. She giggled. He drew the hammer behind
his shoulders and struck with all his might. The puck didn’t reach ¾ of the
way up.
“Winner!” he shouted, raising his arms in victory, and then handed Kate the
stuffed bear. She shook her head and grinned. “Oh yeah… my hero.”
They filled the hours with shooting galleries, dodgem cars, carousels, and
ice creams. Kate skipped and laughed like a teenager, and they swung their
interlocked hands as they walked through the deserted park.
Benny called from behind. “Would you youngsters like to go up on the
wheel?”
Kate looked up at the towering wheel.
“Yeah, sure.” said Steven. “Thanks.” They walked to the Ferris wheel’s
entry gate and as Kate climbed in, Steven discussed something with Benny.
“What was that about?” asked Kate.
“Oh, nothing.” He climbed on board and sat opposite Kate. The wheel
started with a jerk, and they rose slowly into the air. The highway was
visible in the distance, choked with traffic as far as the eye could see.
“Where are they all going?” she asked.
“Nowhere,” Steven replied. “It’s just human nature to try and escape
danger. All they can think about is getting away. It doesn’t matter where.
They’re like mice, trying to scatter in all directions. Sometimes there’s just
no logic to peoples’ thinking.”
The wheel did two rotations, and then came to a stop as they reached the
top. Kate squinted at Steven. “So that’s what you were discussing. Now I
know why it happened on our first date, too. You told me it must have
broken down.”
“At least this time I didn’t have to bribe the operator,” Steven grinned.
Kate twisted her body to look at the view, and her dress rode up her thighs.
Steven’s eyes darted down to her legs. She pulled her dress down in a
frantic effort to cover up, but Steven had already seen the scars. His mind
went back to the earlier conversation in Kate’s kitchen.
“This is why you were angry with me for not calling,” he said.
Kate looked away.
“I couldn’t cope.” she said. “I felt dead inside. I just wanted to feel
something…anything. Oh god, Steven, I’m so ashamed. I’m so ugly.”
She covered her face and wept. Steven prised her hands away and kissed
her tears. Their eyes met. He tugged at the hem of her dress. “Please don’t
look at them, Steven,” she begged. Against her feeble protests, he
uncovered her legs and looked down at the countless scars. There was so
many that there were scars cut across other scars in a haphazard, horizontal,
criss-cross pattern on her thighs. He leaned down and kissed them.
Kate squirmed and let out an uncomfortable grunt. She felt violated and
exposed, yet she wanted him to continue, to once again feel his love, to
experience what she had lost. He patiently kissed every scar and blemish,
and then brushed his lips upwards to the apex of her slender legs. Kate
panted and lifted her legs onto Steven’s shoulders, laid her head back to
gaze at the cloudless azure sky, and gave herself over to him completely.
Steven brought out the woman in her again and again.
Kate adjusted her clothing and Steven sat beside her. She put her hand on
Steven’s thigh, and rested her head on his shoulder. “This has been the best
day of my life,” she said. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“I wish today didn’t have to end,” she said. She realised her faux pas, and
blushed. “That didn’t come out right, did it?”
Steven smiled. “Well, you know what they say,” he said, “tomorrow never
comes.”
“Oh, stop it,” Kate giggled, and slapped his arm. They exchanged looks and
both giggled, and then laughed, unable to stop.
Kate’s laughter subsided, and her eyes moistened. She looked at Steven,
and her lower lip trembled.
Steven rubbed her shoulder. “It’s ok,” he said, and she suppressed her tears.
There was a long silence as they absorbed the sun’s warmth.
“Steven?”
“What?”
“Where do you think we’ll go, you know…tonight?”
He thought for a few seconds. “I don’t know.”
“I used to believe,” she continued, “that there was a Heaven, that there was
a place where everyone goes: our Grandparents, our old pets, our friends,
that we would see them all again. Then I thought…wouldn’t we all be
naked? Why would our clothes go to Heaven? I don’t want to see my
Grandparents naked.”
Steven laughed.
Kate elbowed his ribs, her expression sombre. “Cut it out. You know what I
mean. I’m just saying: it doesn’t really make sense, does it? What about
Abby? She wasn’t even born, but she was a real person. She was our
daughter. If she was in Heaven, would she stay a baby for all of eternity?”
Steven put his arm around her and kissed her cheek. “Wherever we’re going
tonight, we’re going there together.”
Around 4 o’clock, they exited the park. Steven spotted a gaunt, greyishfaced
Benny, slumped in the entry booth, now his tomb, and he diverted
Kate’s attention before she could see him.
“Do you want to go down to the beach?” asked Steven as they settled in the
car.
“A beautiful way to end a beautiful day,” she replied with a smile.
The beach was only a 15 minute drive and close to the tourist-town’s centre.
A few people dotted the white strip between the dunes and the incoming
tide. Steven and Kate sat on the sand and looked out to sea.
“It’s so beautiful,” said Kate. “I wish it could stay like this forever.”
Steven leaned in and kissed her lips. She responded by running her hand
though his hair. She invited his tongue into her mouth, and panted as he
squeezed her breast. Steven stood, unbuttoned and removed his shirt, and
threw it onto the sand. He did the same with his jeans and underwear and
stood there naked, looking down at his wife. She cast her eyes over his
body. It was no longer toned and muscular