Stardust (Complete)

Sparks

I had three appointments in a row, today.  One was a girl who had come all the way from America, to travel the East coast, then skip over to New Zealand.  I was installing a full set of synthetic dreads into her hair.  

After that was a couple on their honeymoon, Marie and Jason, who were both having their real hair dreaded.  They'd dated one another in high school, but she had moved away for university, and he'd travelled the world.  Then, three years later, they ran into each other on the other side of the country, sparks had reignited the flames, and, now, they were married.

"You'll find love in the most unlikely places," Marie told me, glancing at Jason, who was snapping photos of her on his phone as I worked.  "There's someone out there for everyone, just don't look too hard, and you'll find them."

She shifted into a more comfortable position, brushing the soft fabric of her skirt over her legs.  The colour was the same shade as Ash's hair, twined through with light blue and green threads, and I'd smiled, thinking about her, wondering what she was up to.

Back home, Ash was helping Edgy and Caleb drag branches fallen from the trees during the storm, across the yard to the fire pit, flames leaping into the air, climbing higher and higher as they fed it.

Ash was struggling with one particularly large branch, and I went over to help her with it, stepping back from the fire as sparks exploded into the air when we hefted it onto the pile.

"So, your fingers didn't drop off?"  She laughed.

"Not quite," I responded.

I gathered her against me, standing with my chest against her back, my arms around her shoulders, and we watched Edgy and Caleb fighting each other with sticks.

"How old are they, again?"  I asked her, shaking my head, "Twenty- two and twenty- three?"

"Something like that," she laughed as they both came back toward the fire, tossing their sticks into the flames.

"Or, two and three?" I joked.

"Hey, Ash," Edgy said, "I got a call from work, just before.  They said your cars good to go, we can pick it up this afternoon, if you want."

"Oh," she remarked, quickly smiling a smile that didn't reach her eyes.  "Thanks, Edgy."

Neither of them seemed to notice the way she bit her lip and stare into the fire, since Caleb had just launched another savage assault on Edgy with a new stick, and they continued their fight, once more.

But, I noticed.

"Hey, you alright?"  I wondered, and she quickly nodded.

"Yeah, I'm great," she insisted.