Category Archives: Short Fiction

“Yoriko?” I whispered her name in the darkness of her room. She didn’t answer, but I was greeted with the soft even breaths she took obviously in slumber. “Sweetness?” I was careful not to say it above a whisper as I didn’t want to wake her up. She needed her sleep, she had to get up early but she stayed up late anyway to spend time with me. It made me smile as I lay on the floor staring at the ceiling. She murmured softly and turned onto her side. I could hear her blanket rustling as she moved. Still smiling, I slide my arms beneath my head and closed my eyes, letting my mind wander back to that walk on the beach we shared.

The moon full and bright sat amongst the stars in the otherwise black sky gleaming pale light down to illuminate our way along the fine loose sand. She paused for a moment and looked down at her feet, I had taken a few steps further before turning at the waist to peer at her. She looked through long lashes to catch my eyes and her lips spread into a wide smile that coaxed me to move toward her.

“Don’t you love the feel of sand between your toes?” she asked me above the lapping of small waves upon wet packed sand. I looked from her to the water which ebbed and flowed against the beach and back again. The gentle wind that passed across from the water caught strands of her hair and prompted me to extend a hand, my fingertips brushing the strands out of her face.

“Well, I guess so. Want to sit?” She nodded quickly and was quick to plant herself upon the sand just out of reach of the salty water. I sat down as well, knees bent and my arms wrapped about my legs.

“What are you thinking?” I looked at her and smiled.

She answered quickly, her eyes darting from me to the dark horizon of water, “I don’t know. Nothing. You.” She stretched out her legs and rested her arms slightly behind her. Her toes wiped sand from one another nervously.

“Well.” I paused as I leaned to the side and without warning set my head in her lap. “I’m thinking of you too.” There was her smile again, bright as the moon high above. She stifled a giggle and I felt her hand touch my hair.

“Good.” she didn’t say anything else. Instead, we listened to the water and night birds sing for a while. As the wind grew cooler, we simply smiled at one another.

She was half sleeping just barely conscious as she turned over to her side and heard the crunching of paper being creased beneath the weight of her head meeting the pillow once again. It startled her making her support her weight upon one arm and pick up the paper clumsily before she collapsed to the bed again in her weariness. She had stayed awake most of the night watching him, but he was gone now. She frowned realizing that the warmth of his body wasn’t there anymore. The bent square of folded paper mystified her fingers for a moment as she attempted to open it in her uncoordinated state her hands just wouldn’t cooperate. Yawning, her eyes threatened to remain closed, but the sound of yielding paper brought her around once again. It was too dim in the room to read the small letters upon the paper, but with a little bit of angling she managed to catch some of the pale moonlight in her window. She wondered what time it was in a half formed thought.

His words were tiny perfectly formed letters neatly placed upon the pale blue lines. I wanted to wake you up before I left, but you seemed so peaceful there sleeping. When I licked my lips to kiss your forehead I could still taste you there. It reminded me of last night, and I wanted to make you feel that way all over again. I decided to let you sleep though.

Her mind went back to that evening, the laughing and talking. The way she sat in his lap and how she let him caress her arms even though she wasn’t cold. It was when he kissed the back of her neck that she turned around and actually kissed him. It was a blur of exploration, her hands were unsure but she’d wrapped her arms around his neck and let his lips walk their way down her throat. Her fingers found a playground within his hair. It seemed like only a few minutes, but his lips had been on her for the better part of an hour before his touch found the bare skin of her abdomen. Her thoughts continued on, experiencing the thrill of his hands on her all over again. Finally, she blinked away the memory and continued to read.

Before you start to worry again. It was like he was reading her mind while writing it. I loved it. Yes, I loved it. The way you taste, the way you feel, the way you pressed your legs together. I loved it. Loved the breaths you took and the way you held my head. I loved it and I wanted to make you feel that way again this morning. But I thought I should let you sleep.

She almost felt guilty as she smiled and read his words over again. It made her curl up beneath the blanket, and it reminded her she needed to dress again in case someone came to the door. She couldn’t help but to think of it though, how is lips kissed a path up and then down her spine. It was like little droplets of fire touched her skin as he made sure to become intimately aware of each centimeter of her skin. He had said he wanted to know her body the way he knew his own. Just as they shared each other’s feelings and thoughts, he wanted to know her physically. She had laughed at him before, but it was then that she knew what he meant. She knew it in how his tongue traced the curve inside her leg. Despite the nervousness, his hands had been reassuring and comforting in how he splayed her legs. Her nervousness melted away into something different when she felt his tongue for the first time, it had made her draw breath sharply and exhale into shallow rhythmic respiration. She’d held him there as her heart beat rapidly, her hips raised to meet every little movement of his tongue. Without realizing it she’d told him she loved him over and over, she didn’t stop until his lips were on hers and his arms cradled her next to him.

I just wanted to tell you that I loved sleeping next to you, and I didn’t want you to think that I’d forgotten how lovely it is to be near and close to you. I love you. She yanked the pillow he’d laid his head on the entire night and placed it over her face. She yelled ‘I love you’ into it feeling both silly for doing it and so much better for having done it. She didn’t get up to get dressed, instead she curled around the pillow and drifted back to sleep.

Her fingers against my skin sets ablaze a path of fire toward my spine. It makes me draw breath, it makes me breathe deep. Her hair brushing against my cheeks in fine wisps of black when we make love, it smells of flowers and soap; the smell of beautiful clean that makes me breathe deep and exhale when it tickles my nose. Her eyes, dark and slitted when she first wakes from sleep, they are serene as she peers at me, it causes me to shiver and smile. When she speaks her first words I breathe deep and allow myself to be in love. But when she walks away, when she steps out the door, I can’t breathe.

She could barely hear the dishes shatter on the suntan gold linoleum as her ears were ringing from the stinging smack across her mouth. She blinked back tears, her tongue probing the broken flesh that had scraped against her teeth. Her vision cleared for a brief moment before her tears once more blurred the man before her, her husband. He was shouting at her, but oddly enough she heard none of it as she winced. He had caught her completely off guard, she knew he had found out.

“You lying bitch!” she watched his mouth move, his face was reddening even more so. His lips quivered as his eyes became bloodshot. She watched him lose control, but said nothing. She didn’t even cry.

“What?” the room began spinning and she hardly felt her body collide with the floor, her head rebounding once before settling.

“Honey?” she heard him this time, he sounded worried. She winced at the pounding in her head, but found her senses returning rather suddenly.

“You hit me?” the interrogative made him stutter, his jaw slacked as he tried to come up with something to say. She choked forth tears and started to cry, on the edge of hysteria. He’d never hit her before. It was the first time she ever saw him pay attention to her other than as an accessory for evening dinners and fucking when he was in the mood.

“Are you…”

“I hate you!” she spat the words from her mouth vehemently. She saw him flinch at the verbal assault, it was the first time she ever raised her voice to him. She felt as if she finally had the courage to say what she had held back for ten years. All because of ice cream one day with someone she’d never met before.

“I’m…” he reached out to touch her.

“Don’t touch me….” she bolted to her feet and in a frenzy stepped through the broken dishes in her bare feet. She ignored the biting pain of having ceramic pierce the soles of her feet. She snatched up her purse, nearly spilling the contents onto the floor. The love letters were in there. She nearly ran from the front door, pulling her keys violently from the hook beside the threshold.

She ran, bare footed across the parking lot of her apartment complex and got into her car. She looked over her shoulder as the engine came to life, and saw him step out of their apartment. She pulled away as quickly as she dared leaving him standing there waving his arms at the rear of her car.

The crying only intensified as she drove through the traffic. She thought about ice cream funnily enough, but she was driving to the park. She reached inside of her bag for the cell phone, it began ringing before she even managed to get her fingers around it. She ignored it, the caller id displaying the house number. She opened and closed the phone quickly, clearing the call. Opening it again, she dialed quickly. The phone rang and she got the voice mail of her recipient. She threw the phone on the passenger seat and pulled into the park only a few minutes from her house.

As she leaned back in her seat and cried, she cursed herself for what she had done. The cell phone rang. She ignored it at first. “I’m not going to answer it.”

She imagined what the conversation would be like. He found out…….yes he did…he hit…no no you can’t do that…..I’m at the park…. He was always so terse. He would be angry when he saw her face, she looked in the rear view mirror and faintly brushed her fingers over the darkening flesh along her jaw. Her husband hit her really hard. She stretched out and curled up in the driver’s seat for a moment allowing herself to drift off into sleep. He would knock on the door when He arrived.

The thudding against the window startled her into wakefulness, she opened her narrow eyes to peer through the safety glass of the car. There he was smiling softly though his eyes betrayed his emotion.