Sunshine Valley

What the?!?

     Simon jerked awake. He was lying on his side, his arms curled under his pillow; yellow light streamed into the room from the outside pole light. ‘How did this happen?’ he thought. With great care, he got up so not to wake Rebecca. The thought of what it must have felt like to find your mom butt naked, frozen, in a place like Coal Town consumed his heart. 

    He went to the kitchen to get a drink of water. Memories of the years he spend wanderin’ returned with force. Most were good. Nature provided ample food and shelter. One cold winter he was forced into a rundown house in Denver during a blizzard. Other people had found shelter in the house as well. No heat. Little food. At first, they were skeptical about letten him join them. But as the blizzard raged on, they gave in. During the second night of his stay in the house, he and a woman cuddled up for warmth. She was rail thin. He had a few meat sticks and crackers in his bag that he shared with her. 

     As they sat under a rat eaten blanket, trying not to die, she poured out her mind to him. Originally from San Francisco, she mourned for the sand, surf and longed for the arms of her children. The victim of a car accident, that had killed her husband, gotten her hooked on pain meds and had spiraled into having her children taken from her; she sobbed on his shoulder. He had no words to comfort her. Just let her cry. When he had woken the next morning, she was dead. He prayed that she was sittin’ in the sand with her husband watching the surf. Not knowing what to do, he covered her with the blanket and left. 

    Rebecca’s hands caused chills to cascade down his body as she guided them from his shoulders, down his back and around his waist. He cried out, stifling it as soon as it left his mouth. She gripped him tighter, stroking with greater vigor thinking his cry was one of passionate delight instead of the truth.  When he was finished, she smacked him on the butt, leaving him standing there being pulled into pieces. 

    As he tried to collect his thoughts, it seemed to him that she took delight in having heard about what had happened to the sheriff. It caused his stomach to churn thinking anyone would find joy in such misfortune. Especially HIS wife. ‘Who was this woman?’ He finally got his glass of water. Went to the bathroom, before returning to bed. Rebecca dove under the sheets with the force of an Olympic swimmer. He started to say he couldn’t. But it didn’t take long before air caught in his lungs. His body was begging for release again. ‘Who was this woman?’

Sunshine Valley