The Beginning

For V

I want to tell you a story.

The story begins one morning, the first morning. He wakes up and smiles at her through half-closed lashes. Overnight, every color has shifted ever so slightly – the teal of the bedcovers holding them has a sheen he has never seen before. The last drops of rain patter on the window, and tendrils of sunlight drift in and settle on a strand of her hair.

Good morning love.

We are the beginning, now, she opens her mouth to say, but her hand tracing his cheek tells the story instead.

Let me get you tea.

People appear in the streets like water gushing from a dam, filling up the space with their humanity. Whistling men and hooting boys; the grinding sounds of skateboards on pavements; women and daughters chattering arm in arm; couples lost on park benches; people paused, looking at the brightness of the sky in wonder. Curtains part here, here, here – each person opens their eyes to a new world. In the apartment across the street a writer opens his notebook and begins to color a blank page. Just below, a piano melody sneaks through the window and mingles with the smell of freshly made croissants.

The park is full. It is her favourite park to visit, to walk amongst the wild shrubs and sit on the swings for a while. Today it is bustling with noise and movement – the playground of parents and puppies and teasing children. The air is scented with dew – crisp, startling, waking your lungs and body.

There’s a pulse beating, reanimating the veins of a faltering world. He closes his eyes, breathes in as he feels it coursing through him, moving the air around them, flowing within her. His hand settles on her waist.

Can you tell me what forever feels like?

Like an embrace held long enough for two hearts to sync, she murmurs, like becoming music that makes time slow. Like this second, right now, and every second of this future we have created. We live in a space now, unfolding, floating, endless, that we have built with years and nights and tight fists and broken voices.

Unwind your fists love, the fight is over.

The light orange of the sun splashed over the horizon line breathes out, expanding. Dust clears on Mars and the sphere of the Earth glows a little brighter. The intangible thick air that filled the space between planets, closing it off like heavy fog barricades a road, disintegrates – and millions of possible pathways appear.

Close your eyes, imagine, for a moment

She guides him between the stars, through asteroid belts, over millions of miles of rushing darkness to the edge of expansion – and then back, to the warmth of the covers and her arms around him. Inside their gaze there is a note that sounds like the universe humming. We can be everything we have ever wanted, her eyes convey.

This is what forever feels like.