It was nearly time.
The sun was setting in that beautiful way it could, where one gorgeous color melts into the next. Not a sudden change from blue to black, like when the storms roll through, but rather like a ripening fruit. The blue sky holds a yellow orb, which matures throughout the day, its skin turning orange and casting the sky pink, and then finally so ripe and red it falls from the sky bruising it in purples that tend toward midnight blue. He couldn’t have asked for a better backdrop, Lawrence thought to himself. He took a moment and closed his eyes letting the warmth of the sun hit his face, the light sear red even through his eyelids, and the gentle winds brush against his neck. He sighed contentedly, sometimes things just felt right.
Opening his eyes and shading them with his right hand Lawrence watched a small pond glitter in the fading light. An empty boat rocked against a bank of cattails just begging for a picnic, but alas today no one had headed that call. He turned slightly to his right where a weather beaten clapboard house sagged as if it too carried the weight of being a holdout farmer. The rows of corn waved young and green behind the structure, but no happy hardworking couple populated the covered porch or ancient rocking chairs. One final quarter turn to his right brought Lawrence to the park.
Cedar-Rose was no Central Park boasting exotic animals or boathouse diners. It was just a park. It had a few baseball diamonds, empty on this weekday evening, numerous swing sets dotting it’s rolling fields, and a fishing pond complete with wooden foot bridge. From his hill Lawrence could see most of the park. A man dozed at the edge of the pond waiting for a fish to bite, a family complete with laughing children and yapping dog made their way from a playground, already in covered in long shadows, toward a minivan, and a woman sat on a bench beneath a majestic oak tree.
The slanting light of the sun at his back seemed to highlight her every feature. She sat watching the sunset with a pair of the bluest eyes Lawrence had ever seen trying desperately to ignore the lose strands of amber colored hair which had escaped her ponytail. Her posture suggested that she was tense, perhaps from a long day at work. He smiled to himself as he contemplated her sitting at some interior windowless cubical counting the minutes till she could escape to the park where she would bask in the simple joy of nature.
He loved her instantly.
Just then a strong wind blew the whole mess of her hair into her face, and once she readjusted herself Lawrence knew she had caught him staring. It was like she were right before him then. As if with each breath more distance fell away. She leaned in closing the final gap. He felt the tears in his eyes, but he didn’t dare to brush them aside. Her eyes were wide and thoughtful, her shoulders strong, her heart open, and in that sliver of a moment she knew him.
Completely.
His hands, which had been searching while his mind wandered, hit pay dirt. The cold sting of bare metal touched him to the core. He had found what he had come for, and now it was time. Lawrence never paused, in case his resolve failed him.
The motion was swift.
The metal, cold, where it had touched his skin quickly turned into a line of molten heat.
The knife might have flashed silver in the light but he would never know, because he wanted nothing more than to hold on to that moment to her. Because in her eyes Lawrence had found truth…an honest giving of one’s own self to another.
His eyes never left hers, not even when he hit his knees, or when the multihued evening went black…when everything else was gone Lawrence still had his sliver of a moment and that was enough.
~~~~~~~~~~~
These stories were my interpretation of a moment shared between to strangers. Specifically because the man, Lawrence was looking for someone to share this moment with. They never knew each other, but they will be forever connected now. The idea was what if someone wanted you to see something, to show you something, share some event with you without your consent. I hope you enjoyed it!
Part 1 link.
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