Straight on till Morning

Bill Monkovitz sits on the balcony of The Pleasant Harbor Inn, and listens to the rumble of the summer thunder.  The air is thick with the impending storm.  He looks down at the table wondering where his beer is and then glances at the empty chair across from him.  Thats odd.  His date is missing.  He looks out over the bay and notices that the lights from all of the summer homes are lit and reflecting in the flat calm water.  Just like stars.  Except, theres something flashing.  The humid air carries a strange sound that he cant quite place, and those crazy flashing lights.  Idly, he wonders again, where his date is.  Things had been going so well.



Two weeks, ago.  Thats when Melanie had walked through the front door of the Fairport Chamber of Commerce.  He and Thad had been looking for a little help in the office.  What, with the Field Days coming up, and the parade, the whole stupid Fourth of July thing.  The two of them could handle things for most of the year, but they had always needed a little more help around this time of year, and since Thads wife Jenny was sick again.  Well, drinking again, really.  They had put in the ad for the temp.  After a week of looking and not being really happy with what they were seeing, Bill was just about to suggest that they give up and let Jenny do it anyway.  Something was better than nothing, and even though they spent most of the time correcting her mistakes, she was fun to have around.



It was hot when she showed up.  Hot and humid and showed no sign of breaking.  The AC was busted and his tie was doing its best to choke the life out of him.  He had just decided that professionalism was for another day and was taking his tie off, when the desperate little bell above the door rang, announcing her entrance. 



She wasnt beautiful.  Well, not in the conventional sense.  Not, what Thad would call a looker.  There was just something about her.  Something, mythic.  No, classic.  That was it.  Classic.  She had short blond hair, and long pale legs.  She reminded him of that stupid little fairy that was always flying around and hitting things with her wand.  Like, in the Disney movie.  What was her name?  Tinkerbell, yeah, the one with Peter Pan.



Shed gotten the job, immediately.  She was from the city, and had just moved to town.  Ugly divorce, shed said.  Bill didnt press her.  Shed worked in the Mayors office, so she knew her shit.  She liked it here in Fairport, though.  Bill watched her work, like she was in the ballet.  Hed never seen a ballet, but he imagined that if it was as magical as everyone said, then it must be something like watching Melanie work.



Two weeks passed.  Two weeks of pleasant conversation.  Two weeks of taking an extra five minutes in the morning to make sure that his hair was all set.  Two weeks of loving his job.  Two weeks of the ballet with Tinkerbell.



Then today, as hed been closing up the office, theyd got to talking.  It wasgod, what had they been talking about.  It wasnt politics or religion, because they were both in such a good mood.  It was  It was not important.  The important thing was that she had smiled and laughed and even though the AC had crapped out again, he felt cool and fresh like a spring day.  Her laugh was clear like ice cubes poured in a glass, and then shed asked him to dinner.  Him.  She had asked him.  She, had askedit kept going over and over in his head, and he almost forgot to respond. Her clear hazel eyes crinkled for a second in doubt, before he was able to blurt out a, yeah, sure.  Then her eyes lit up and she swayed her hips a little as she walked out.  The edge of her short green skirt caught the air and seemed to float around her.  Yeah, just like Tinkerbell.



He put in a quick call to Jeff, over at the Pleasant Harbor Inn and after a little wheeling and dealing, he managed to get the table on the third floor balcony.  The table overlooking the outdoor dining area and the bay.  The table right by the railing.



Down by the water, it was a little less humid, or maybe the thunderheads that were piled up on the horizon were cooling things down.  Heat lightning rippled through the clouds like the most romantic flicker of firelight, from the bottom of the ocean.  Wow, Im getting all poetic and shit.  Thats what Bill thought as he ordered a beer.  But, this was just like that.  She was poetic.  Classic.



Things were going so well.  After dinner she ordered the tiramisu and a cappuccino, and he ordered a scotch.  He thought about getting another beer, but it seemed moresophisticated to order scotch, and thats just how he was feeling.  How she made him feel.  Sophisticated.



They sat back, each of them, and quietly stared at each other for what seemed like eternity.  The quiet rumble of the distant thunder sounded almost like a musical.  She smiled at him with her, magical, mythic, classic smileah, Tinkerbell.  He started to laugh.  She tilted her head like a puppy trying to understand, which just made him laugh even harder.  He finally explained the Tinkerbell thing.  For a moment he was unsure about how she would respond, but her laughter rang out and her hand grabbed his, and she was holding his hand, oh my god.  He couldnt breath.  He couldnt think.  He couldnt do anything but look into her eyes and know that somehow he knew her, and that she was meant for him and he was meant for her.  And it was classic.  Like an Audrey Hepburn movie.  Classic.



Finally they both stopped laughing, and caught there breath, and calm came over them.  She looked out over the clear calm bay and sighed.  She knew it, too.  He could tell.  She looked out into the dark water from the bay, the dark water that reflected the lights like stars in the skies.  The cold dark water threw a shadow over her face and she seemed to gasp for a second.  He wasnt sure if hed seen something pass over her face.  A trick of light, but something very much like a shadow of such fear and sadness, that her eyes filled with tears.  And suddenly he was scared, not for himself, not for her, just a low creeping dread of something foreign touching him.  Something cold.



He leaned in to her and took her face in his hands, turning it away from the dark water.  He looked deep into her eyes and he could see the shadow fade backward into her.  She smiled quickly and it was as if nothing had happened, and they were right back where they belonged.  That was when she started to lean in to him.  Closer, closer.  She put her hand on his knee, and wrapped the other one around the back of his neck.  This is it!, he thinks.  This is it.  She leaned in toward him and time slowed down.  Her hazel eyes closed in slow motion.  The breeze of her movement tickled the five oclock shadow on his cheek.  Her pixie hair brushed against his temple and he felt his whole body shiver.  Her warm breath touched his ear, and then the sudden intake of air cooled it, and then the confusion started.



How do you save Tinkerbell?, she whispered and then sat back with the quizzical head tilt.  He stared blankly for a second, and then the dread came back.  He felt the cold shudder through him as she smiled for a second, and knew that something was extremely wrong.



Then she was gone.



Like a dancer she had leapt up, in one fluid movement, vaulting to the top of the railing.  She paused for one second to smile as she pushed away, out into space, waiting for her wings to grow.  Her back arched and her arms stretch out in an embrace of the ether.  The breeze caught her and for almost a second it seemed like she might actually fly.  Then gravity caught her in its loving embrace and pulled her down.  She didnt even scream as she fell.  She just smiled and felt the breeze whisper in her ear until the earth interrupted her flight.



And so, Bill Monkovitz sits there, and wonders.  Unable to understand.  For him, time has frozen in this moment and he is staring a half eaten piece of tiramisu and an empty cappuccino cup.  He wonders if he has found his shadow.  He wonders



People keep coming up to him and saying thingsyelling thingsthings that he just doesntcant understand.  Why was he looking for his shadow?  Thats funny.  He starts to laugh and then time passes.  Or at least thats what he thinks.  Because, now hes getting wet.  It must be raining.  He wonders when exactly that started and decides that he better get up, because his suit is getting wet.



He starts to stand up, and stumbles falling back into his chair.  For a moment, he lays his head on the railing and stares at the lights in the dark water.  The lights like the dark cold spaces between stars.  The horrible darkness between the second star to the right, and how far it is till morning.



And then he thinks about the railing.  The railing.  What is so special about the railing?  So, he looks over the edge and there, right in the middle of all the twinkling lights is his Tinkerbell.  But, she doesnt seem to be quite right from up here.  Something dark has stained the ground around her.  Has she found his shadow?  Did she catch it?  What a good, little fairy she is.  Even if her legs are turned in a weird way right now, she still seems like shes flying.



Then it hits him.  Clap, real loud.  Thats it.  Thats how you save, Tinkerbell.  Clap real loud!



So, now hes laughing again and hes dancing on the table and clapping as hard as he can.  Strange men, in uniforms are around him, reaching out to him.  But, he doesnt care.  No.  He doesnt care at all, because now, now, he gets it.  No wonder he loves this woman!



Clap real loud!!!, he screams hoarsely as he dances on the table.  Of course.  It makes so much sense.



Clap real loud.