East West Sunset - A Darry Curtis Fanfiction

Chapter Forty-Two

I shed my coat to fly lighter across the ground as I ran to him. The rain spattered against my chest, but it was lighter now, less cutting. He stumbled towards me, his limp fading with each step.

When we reached each other it almost was as if the droplets froze in their downward spiral towards the earth and the sun emerged again. I crashed into his arms and let him hold me. He felt impossibly cold, as if he were made of river water itself, but beneath my ear I could hear his heart beating out strong against all the odds. He was alive. He was alive! As much as my mind tried to convince me that this moment wasn't real, that it couldn't be, the feeling of his strong arms around me and his heartbeat trembling through me proved that it was. Darry was alive!

"Diana," he whispered hoarsely, burying his face into my wet hair. "Oh god. Diana."

"Thank goodness you're okay," I sobbed, but they were tears of joy this time.

In response, he tipped up my chin so I was looking him in the eye. Then, so slowly, he bowed his head so that his lips met mine. Chills raced up and down my body that had nothing to do with the cold rain, and soon those chills became fiery, hot passion. I kissed him harder, still not believing that it was his living flesh that was pressed so close against me.

I pulled away from him suddenly and angrily punched him in the arm.

"Hey now! What was that for?" he protested with a wounded wince.

"I CANNOT believe you didn't come back for so long! Where on god's green earth were you?!" I shouted, full of rage.

"I would have come back right away if I could," he said. "Although with the reception I'm getting right now, I don't know..."

"You absolute bastard." I held him tight again, burying my face in his hard chest. "So what happened? What kept you away from me for four whole weeks?"

"I lost my memory for a bit. I think I hit my head too hard on the water, or maybe it was the shock of the cold. I don't know."

"Oh, god, Darry." The rain pattered gently against the top of our heads, but we didn't make any attempts to move.

"I know. It really threw me into a daze. I drifted downriver for a good ten miles before I shook myself out of it, but I still couldn't remember anything. I managed to pull myself out of the river round about Jenks, just south of Tulsa. I was freezing. I'd lost my shirt and shoes and socks when I'd fallen, so when I got out I was very cold. It was also pitch black out there."

"How did you survive if you were that cold? The police said only 15 minutes in the river would have killed you."

"I don't know." He sighed into my hair. "It helped that I saw a house not too far from the river. There was a middle aged couple in there who gave me some clothes and a place to stay for the night, even though they looked a little suspicious of me. I left in the morning but I didn't know what happened or who I was and I had no idea where I was going to go. I spent the next few weeks camping out in parks and finding places to stay with people who'd let me crash at their houses."

"What did you do for food?"

"The people I stayed with would usually give me a meal. But otherwise I just didn't eat much and tried to conserve my calories."

I realized that I could feel his ribs jutting into my cheek, and his face was gaunt and had the pallor of someone who hadn't been eating well. 

"I could've left Jenks but I had the feeling I shouldn't move far in case I did end up remembering something. I kept remembering bits and pieces. Most of all I remembered you."

"You did?"

"I could remember that I had a girl that I loved very much. That was the only thing I could remember, but it gave me the courage to keep on."