Written in collaboration by
jes_da_man & LittleOne
Saturday, October 20, 2001 - 10:59pm
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Darkness... punctuated occasionally by the flashes from a distant thunderstorm, is folded over your eyes like a heavy layer of black velvet, and just as a lover's hand would, the humid night air caresses your face, and you can smell the storm as it approaches.
Standing outside on the porch in front of your remote house, you wonder how long it will be before the lights are restored, and they banish the eerie darkness again for a bit. A sudden breeze toys with your hair and your skirt. You shiver slightly at the chill running down your spine, and you cross your arms over your breasts.
To your surprise, off in the distance, you see the headlights of an approaching car. For some unknown reason, you feel a tension creep over you as the driver picks his way down the poorly-maintained road that leads nowhere but to you. Alone tonight, you are aware of your vulnerability.
A low roll of thunder distracts you, as the glow of a distant thunder bolt crawls over you slowly, reminding you of the incredible power of nature's display, making its way across the flat countryside in the night.
You can now plainly hear the car's engine. It purrs quietly, revealing a pent-up power that provides a counterpoint to the uncontrolled energy of the storm on the horizon. A flash of lightning illuminates the vehicle, and you note that it is a fine European model, black as the night, with nobody within it but the driver, whose features you cannot quite yet make out.
Turning the final corner, the car comes to a stop in front of you. The car's engine goes silent, and the headlights go dark. You hear a car door close and another flash of lightning lets you at last see the stranger's face. Something inside you cries out, and you feel your knees go to jelly at the sight of him.
He is the man from your dreams... a man with finely-styled black hair, a proud but not arrogant face, and piercing black eyes. Eyes that are directed straight at you, and which you can feel boring through you, even in that scant instant of light.
But how can this be? How can he actually be here in your presents? You had resigned yourself to believing that you would never see him in person. And yet... he was here... approaching you in the darkness of the night.
Just as quickly as his face has been illuminated by the lightening flash, his features are plunged into the darkness of the night, and all you can hear is his footsteps in the gravel, as he moves towards you, and then you hear a rich, low voice.
He says, "Hello, miss. Could you help me, please?"
You feel a fluttering in your gut at the sound of his voice, and your throat seems constricted as hard as a rock.
"Sure, um, what is it you need?" you finally force out.
You hear the porch grown and feel it move slightly as he helps pull himself up the stairs by the use of the hand rail. His footsteps on the plain decking of the porch resound in a hard rapping sound, and you feel an urgent need for them to come closer to you.
"I am lost," he says. "Between the storm and the map that I have, I took a bad turn a while back and now have no idea at all where I am."
Still the fluttering inside you continues, and you can see his shadowy outline against the blackness beyond the house.
"Oh, okay... Come on inside. I've got a map," you say as you turn and open the door and start to step into the house.
It is even darker in here, if that were possible, and he hesitates at the doorway.
"Can you turn on a light?" he asks.
"Oh... I'm sorry. The storm knocked out the lights. I think I've got a flashlight around here someplace though... hold on... I'll look for it."
"Sure. I'll wait here. Don't want to trip over a lamp or whatever, you know."
As you turn to go in search of the flashlight, you can practically hear his smile. Turning your face back in his direction, you smile at him in the darkness, and say, "Yeah, um, I'll be right back."
You quickly turn back around and make your way into the kitchen, where the flashlight is kept in a drawer. Turning it on, you retrace your steps, squinting slightly with the relative brightness of the beam. Meanwhile, upon seeing you return to the front room, he advances into the house and closes the door behind him.
"Ah... Much better," he says approvingly. "Now I can see."
As you approach him, you notice that his eyes are drinking you in, and you feel a quiver pass through you, wondering at the true meaning of his words. Setting the flashlight down on the coffee table, you pull open the drawer in the end table to retrieve the promised map.
"Here, have a seat," you say, motioning at the sofa.
You sit beside him and spread the map before you. This close to him, you can smell the sharp tang of his after-shave and feel the warmth emanating from him.
"Ah, yes, I see now. I went wrong here," he says after a moment or two, and points at a highway intersection located miles away.
"And you're here, now..." you say.
Suddenly a brilliant flash of lightning makes you jump, and the instant reply of thunder booms between your ears. You then hear sheets of rain hit the house almost immediately. Smiling at him you attempt to recover from the fright by pointing out the place on the map to him again. Your finger is trembling, and you look at him. He is smiling at your reaction to the storm.
"Caught me by surprise," you say, returning the smile.
"Same here..." he says.
His response slowly evaporates into the darkness that surrounds the glow from the flashlight and the storm outside, seems not to even exist. For what seems an eternity... but in actuality is only for a few seconds, neither one of you realize that you both sit there silently looking deep into each other's eyes, as though a familiar inner connection has once more been made between the two of you.
All of your senses scream out that it is him... the man of your dreams. From the most inner depths of your being you are at this instant, absolutely sure of this. Then suddenly reality envelopes both of you, and the connection is broken, when he makes a subtle move as if to stand up.
"Ah, um, Well, I suppose I should be off now," he says hesitantly. "Thank you very much..."