In Flames: A Short Story

The fire danced around, both in front of her and in her eyes, igniting memories and evoking sensations throughout her body. The cool breeze could be felt by everyone except the girl that was practically sitting in the fire. She had scooted her log considerably closer, the smoke from the flames licking her tanned legs and the flickers of orange light giving her skin a deep, russet glow.

He watched from behind her, contributing a bit to the conversation surrounding him every few minutes. She was oblivious, but she always was when in the presence of fire.

Scenes flashed through her mind as if it were her last few minutes on the earth. The heat reminded her of her mother's honey green tea. She would always drink hot tea even when the temperature was 95 degrees outside. The girl reminisced on all the things her mother told her.

"Tea is very good for you. It can lengthen your life."

"Meditating can enhance your mind. It will make you age more gracefully."

Her theories weren't based on any merited medical opinions; only her own opinions were used to rationalize the things she did. The things she said would help didn't, though. She was dead by the time she was forty. Heart attack. The woman that lived and preached health food and meditation. The girl was sure it was God's way of saying, "I can take you whenever I want, no matter what." Her mother didn't believe in God, but the girl was sure that people didn't descend from apes.

The woman's daughter hated health food and would rather watch a raging bonfire than meditate. Or a burning match. Or a fireplace filled with apple kindling. It created the sweetest aroma and the fire burned so brightly that sometimes it seemed to come alive and speak to her.

A spark hitting her kneecap brought her back down to earth just in time to hear a discussion behind her that she found oddly compelling. She wasn't always oblivious.

"So, Cole… You've been stealing away with that fiery red head the last several times we've been up here, man."

The girl rolled her eyes. When would men learn that pasting an over-used, bourgeois adjective in front of the color of a girl's hair is not the proper way to address her? Fiery red head. Leggy blonde. Busty brunette. Where did it end?

She supposed that girls wearing shirts with "Brunettes do it better" and "Blondes always have more fun" splayed across their chests didn't help matters at all.

Strangely, however, she wanted to hear where this conversation was going. She abandoned her thoughts and memories long enough to find out what the answer to the ill-stated inquiry would be.

"Yeah, Leanna's cool. I like her enough."

Hah. Enough? She was the only one to catch what he meant when he went on his rants that seemingly lasted forever and ended in intoxicated stupors.

"C'mon. You know that's not what I wanted to hear about."

"A gentleman never kisses and tells."

"That's not how it goes, dude."

"Either way, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to fuel more rumors and leave you hanging." His eyes were burning into her back and she could feel his gaze.

She smiled at the fire, but for the first time that night, it wasn’t because of the fire. She stood and brushed the ashes off of herself before elegantly stalking into the edge of the forest. A large sycamore tree, one that had seen much more and lived much longer than Leanna's great-great-great aunt, who was alive and kicking, a bit low, but still kicking (who never once ate tofu or meditated about eating tofu), became a wonderful place for Leanna to shield her body from the man on a mission to find her.

He reached the set of trees that housed the extremely elderly sycamore and looked around, confusion in his deep brown eyes.


"Leanna? Where'd you go?" He called out to her in a soft voice, knowing she wasn't very far from him. It was their little game. Their ritual. He searched the branches of the large trees for any trace of a feminine figure. She climbed a tree once to hide from him.

This was her game. As much as he wanted her to feel the same sentiment for him as he did for her, he knew she used him for her insatiable lust. He didn't complain.

He spun around with his back to her location and with exceptional grace and stealth she leaped onto his back, not saying a peep. He just laughed and spun around after she had let go and was planted back on the ground.

"So, word on the street is I'm a fiery red head, huh?" She pulled a thinly rolled joint from her jean pocket and handed it to him. He smiled and lit it with his cheap, gas station lighter. It was a tiger that spat a green flame from his gnashing mouth. Laughable. The first inhalation of smoke caused him to close his eyes ever so briefly and sigh in content, smoke billowing from his mouth and nose at the same time.

"Yeah. I'm not sure if that's your attitude or your fascination, though." The joint was plucked from his fingers and placed between her lips before he could hand it to her. The earlier memories proved to be a bit much and a release was needed.

"It's both on a good day." They ended up deeper into the woods in what seemed like no time. Whether it was the company or the marijuana, neither knew nor cared. A large rock seemed like the perfect place to rest and converse about the sky turning amber like the sap in the trees surrounding them or ponder why their meetings had become so frequent and procedural.

The silence that night seemed to give off the latter and they shared a shotgun, first Cole then Leanna, which left their THC-induced minds swimming. Or drowning. The rock was all of a sudden very warm beneath them, the heat even reaching the skin in the small arches of their backs. It seemed that the fire followed them that night, and the lack of moon or stars gave the perfect cover to explore each other's minds and bodies with more than the usual colloquial speech. There was no naiveté to be found that night. Only passion and inebriated debauchery was abounded.

An hour later found them lying on the ground in their bare-minimals. The dirt that clung to their backs was chilly and cooled their warm skin exceptionally. Nothing could be heard except soft breathing and excited yelps from the distant bonfire.

"Do you ever think about God?" Her voice was soft and her eyes were staring into her memory rather than up at the sky like one would assume.

"Sometimes. What about him?"

"What his plans are. If he does care or if we're just his little pets in a cage to play with." Cole turned his head and looked over at her, but she kept her eyes straight ahead. A screech owl cried out above them and landed in the tree under which they were lying.

"I'd like to think he does care. People get tired of pets after awhile. He hasn't yet. Even if we are his little pets, he takes pretty good care of us." He took her hand in his, intertwining their fingers and squeezing lightly. Her eyes finally met his and a single tear fell from each eye, one running across the bridge of her nose and mixing with the trail of the other.

"Why doesn't he save us then?"

"We're fragile. Maybe he takes the ones that are too fragile and gives them a better life."

"And the rest of us?"

"I don’t know. Maybe we're strong enough to figure it out for ourselves." She turned back and gazed upward once again, leaving him to scan his eyes over her body. His eyes returned to her face quickly, though. The moon had been unmasked and was now shedding a pastel light on her face. She was glowing in a different way than ever before. She always shone with a deep scarlet or bright orange in the fires she started and was drawn to, but at that one moment, before the moon was again hidden behind another cloud, she looked ghastly beautiful. Like a ghost waiting to move on.

By then, the loud clamors and voices had died down and more people were venturing into the woods to find refuge for their teenage lust. Leanna rose first and pulled her pants on followed by her shirt and rested on the rock they had inhabited initially. Cole sat up and stared at her questioningly. She would always get up and walk away leaving him to put his clothes on alone with his thoughts. He rose and put his clothes back on hastily, not wanting her to leave him again.

She smiled and reached out for him to take hold of her hand. A simple gesture like that made him break out into a large grin.

The emotions swirling around them were almost tangible. One's heart had reopened to life and the other's longing was seemingly not in vain as first predicted.

As they emerged from the edge of the woods hand in hand, they both were on the same page. Same paragraph. Same word. Something had changed in the hour of midnight. Neither could explain verbally, but that was the turning point for two lives.

Before they parted for the last time, he looked at her eyes. They were facing the fire, but her eyes were no longer burning embers, but were smoldering. They were ready to face reality. She had abjured from her old beliefs, but not in a solemn manner. It was letting go in peace.

The two shared one more smile and released their hands when both had their arm straight out. He headed to his jeep and she began her walk home.