(I)
Blobs of unrecorded history erased with soap and water.
Noise entangles itself with the living.
He starts out many ways. But he already begins in opposite directions. He makes decisions. Convinces himself until he's convinced. He eradicates every belief he owns. Carries on with a touch of sound.
He attaches to what kills him. Blind by mazes. Lengths of road without ends. All converge when time stops.
He does not know who he is. How he will react. He dreads what he knows. Wishes it to persist when over. To take it back like she always wants what he has.
***
I.
They take the car for themselves. Top-down. Madeline's hair runs along waves of wind. In the direction they leave.
Green paint. Convertible. Miss Sally's.
Their life is linear.
They drive on a road. Connected to towns. They leave their city behind. Forgotten for a week. Two weeks.
"I can't believe this temperature!" Madeline says. She lifts her hands in the air. Wind rushes past in flutters. Around her fingertips. Invisible strands of force.
"Just like I imagine," she says.
His hands are loose on the wheel. Texture he wraps with fingers. Plastic fate to hold on to.
"Do you want to stop?" she says. Exit signs off the road. Small towns visible from their height. One. Two. Three. Indistinguishable.
They ride and drift on the spinal cord. The link between separate spheres that all connect. Populate. Color. People in streets. Shirts open. Wind flowing.
Sand blows in the air. Around ankles
Warmth of light. Palm trees. Seawater lounges under penetrating rays. Weather to hold a glass with ice. With lime and sandals hanging off feet.
"How many miles have we gone?" Madeline says.
"About 2,000."
"Good. Almost there."
II.
He ties the hammock. Swings Madeline between palm trees.
"Lay with me," she says. The ocean. Quiet. His feet in sand. He burrows them deeper.
"Please lay with me," she says.
"I have to swim."
They drive where no one can find them. The last beach on earth. For two people. South. Maybe he repeats this. The last beach for two people. She can be honest.
"I'll go with you," she says. "Take off your clothes."
Water crowds their bodies. They wrap legs together. They float. There is influence between coral. Coral in his brain. Surfaces on warm afternoons. She swims away.
She breathes loudly. Dives under. Fist waves splash his face. She surfaces. Spouts like a whale. The spray. A rainbow in the dying light.
"Kiss me," she says.
III.
"You still haven't told me why we're here," Madeline says.
He does not remember direction of words. Something he inhales. Through reading. The spell overtakes his thoughts. Becomes his thoughts.
YOU ARE READING
The Nameless Man
Short StoryAfter stumbling into a small village, a man finds it hard to leave when he encounters a woman and her daughter. As their intimacy grows over the years, it becomes clear that he'll have to choose who's heart to break or leave forever. In his quiet mo...
