From: darren@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: alt.romance.chat
Subject: RFA Application. At last.
Date: 13 Jan 93 11:23:33 +1300
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

Prez!! Here, finally, is my RFA application!
(How much is the bribe to ensure it goes through okay?)

Gulp. Well, here goes...

Bird Babble and Cream Cheese
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Oh, you speak of love but know nothing of it! You talk of
the gentle kiss down by the quiet river but to you the river
is noisy, full of sound from the babble in your head that
keeps flowing. You tell me I am beautiful while gazing
longly on the tree swaying in the friendly wind and casting
its prescence as a shadow on us.  The tree whispers its
words to you which you then repeat to me as sweet nothings
of eternal devotion.  You talk to the spirits of life and do
not hear me. Even now, you do not really listen.  If I were
to say something strange like 'cream cheese', you would not
question your ears.  You have a crazy babbling bird on your
shoulder which you hear, you hear all the sounds around you
as individual sounds-right now you hear my voice with all
its nuances but you cannot link together the sounds as words
and the words as sentences telling of my loss, the loss
which is you."
The sun was crimson and darkening, dropping as its string in
the sky unravelled. It seemed to be smiling and frowning.
Perhaps it was pleased to finally rest for the night after
working so hard in the heat of the day. But it wasn't quite
sure, this time everyday it felt the same, relieved to have
finished another hard day working and giving life it looked
forward to contemplating the gaspimg fairy lights above and
below it. It never remembered the previous night though,
this was the first day and first night of the rest of its
life.  So of course it wasn't surprising it heard the
ominous swish of the Reaper's sickle as the first cold
tentacles struck its flames.
"You know Kirst, dusk is actually a thick dark line you can
see descend between night and day as the sun goes down. It
is actually quite defined.  Day, then the dark dusk line for
a few minutes while night gets itself in order.  Then
blackness. I could really see it clearly while watching the
shadow of that tree get longer and longer and fatter and
fatter until it had covered the whole town."
"Sam!" cried Kirsty giving him a shove. "You're not
listening to me!"
"Oh, sorry hon. What'd you say?"
"Never mind."
Sam leaned over, Kirsty closed her eyes and he brushed his
lips on her eyelid. She could feel the velvet soft and moist
veiled smooth skin touch her soul. She pushed him away
firmly and suggested he fetch some firewood.
"Aw, let's not worry. We'll cuddle up in our sleeping bag
and watch the stars wink and flirt with us.  Then we could
make love."
"I told you you should have gathered some earlier. Sam,
let's get the fire going.  We can boil some water, I would
love a coffee out in the open here.  We could sip coffee out
of each other's cups and flirt and wink at the stars.  Then
we could make love."
"Hey, you forgot the sleeping bag part!"
"We won't need that. We'll be hot with that coffee in us."
"I'd be hot anyway, lying here miles from anywhere with the
most beautiful woman in a million miles beside me."
Sam trudged off into the darkening forest to gather some
fuel.  Kirsty watched as his torchlight lept onto and
between trees, throwing eerie shadows back and forth and 
somehow increasing the invisible noises drifting out from 
the copse. A burst of used air hissed between her clenched 
teeth when she realised she had been holding her breath. She 
suddenly felt a pang of worry, a curtain of foreboding draped 
itself silently over her and their campsite. Kirsty touched 
with her little finger the spot on her eyelid that Sam had
kissed. A tear squeezed itself between the lashes and
escaped down her cheek.  She knew what the foreboding meant.
She had decided to leave Sam after this holiday; the curtain
became sadness.
"He dreams too much. I love his romanticising but what about
real life. There are real things to do. He doesn't realise
that all this dreaming amounts to nothing and all it would
ever get us in the end is a few laughs and melancholy." It
would end the day after tomorrow, after the long drive home.
"It is the best for both of us, " she thought.
She gathered the remains of the wood pile they had used up
this morning and got a small, intense fire going with the
twigs and small branches strewn around her.
The sun smiled as the wood burst into flame. It paused and
lingered above the horizon for a couple of minutes before
finally dropping the next few metres and plopping into the
sea.
"There you go hon. This lot should do for the morning as
well." Sam let the pile fall from his arms and it thudded
into the earth beside the fire.
Kirsty grasped Sam's hand and pulled him down to her.
"Mmmm. It's getting warm already, " she said. "The sun's 
gone."
"It's not gone. It's just letting other people enjoy it now.
Just imagine- there is a couple sitting on a beach exactly
halfway around the world from us watching the first peek of
the sun over the water. They're probably sitting on a
blanket, just like ours. They've just lit the fire so they
can have coffee and hot milk for breakfast..."
"Hot milk? It's probably 25 degrees celsius where they are."
"Don't be picky Kirsty. Okay, so the fire is just for their
coffee. But the sun is coming up, it can see the fires
springing up all over the place beneath it.  It realises it
has seen its days start like this for a millenium, it knows
though that this day is special. It's Today and there has
never ever been a day like it." Sam glanced at Kirsty, he
could see the fire jumping and dancing as a minute
reflection in the calm mirror of her eyes. "I bet he can see
the sunrise reflected in her eyes too.  And they'll be
holding hands."
"She's thinking how lucky she is. The woman is probably
wishing on the sunrise.  Wishing that they will be together
forever and ever. Do you think they make love now, Sam?"
"Nah. There's far too many other couples camping on the
beach as well, " Sam said, leaning over with a sparkle in
his eyes and touching Kirsty's shoulder as they both started
giggling.

They had packed the car before breakfast so they could get
away early.  The air was clean and light and the sun was
poking its first rays between the tree trunks behind Sam and
Kirsty. Arm in arm, they were both surveying the glade they
had lived in for 3 days, starting to feel the heavyness of
reponsibilities, having to get back in time for work, fast-
paced modern city life even managed to reach its sticky
tentacles into this alone forest on the edge of nowhere.
"You know, some people are so busy with their busy little
lives, working to stay alive, staying alive so they can work
that they never spend time in places like these.  The very
thought of being alone with themselves and alone with no
video or cable scares them witless. Well, let's go." Sam
spun on his heel, turned the key and revved the engine a few
times.  "Come on!" he called.
Kirsty lifted and dropped her shoulders, in some semblance
of a shrug, turned her body around and headed toward the
car, still looking at the crushed grass where they had made
love. She got in, Sam thrust the gear in first and turned
towards the main road, spurting gravel into the forest. Sam
glanced both ways and pulled onto the highway that lead to
their future.
"Did you say we needed cream cheese, Kirsty?"
-- 
Darren
aka Ghanalf
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