(short story)

The sea before him is riotous. Dark. Foams with bright splashes against a gloomy sky, screams with a piercing cry of gulls. And lives.

Surprisingly bright and keen lives in one single moment. To easy envy and longing somewhere in the farthest corner of the heart. Until the desire to take a deep breath of salty air and rush headlong into the very depths of the sea.

To hide in it from the severity of problems pressing on the shoulders. From the desire to cry like a child: frantically, intermittently breathing and blinking away tears.

Shane doesn’t take a single step. He lowers his head and slouches even more, trying to become as small and inconspicuous as possible.

Clinging his hands to the fabric of black trousers, he wrinkles it, not knowing where to put not only his hands. Where to put all of himself. How to get together, taking away pieces left by everyone who is dear to him.

“Shane.”

Jessica is not left behind him. She does not give him time to recover and invades his personal space with the confidence and swiftness of thunderclouds covering the sky above their heads.

She becomes nearby, touching a strange cold and trembling palm of his own – warm, so real in this almost haze of fear and despair, that Shane involuntarily squeezes her fingers in response.

“Jessica,” he says, immediately silencing again. Not because he does not know what to say. For him it’s always easy to talk to her, as if to choke every time in words and gestures, in a desire to express everything that ached and tore his soul every day “before”.

Before them, before their kiss, before their becoming one.

But now he doesn’t want to talk. He can’t. The words get stuck in his throat, and Shane helplessly closes his mouth, just sighing.

Jessica understands everything. She does not need any words, just a tired look from her Shane to give a damn about an expensive dress and sit on the sand. To pull the guy behind him and hug him. Cling to herself, allow his forehead to be buried in the shoulder and allow him to stop being strong for a few precious moments.

Take all his pain, share it with him and rocking, singing something. Talk about the past, remember the past and speak for both, exposing the face to the blows of a gusty wind.

And maybe then they will be lit by the rays of the sun.