Ice Crystals

prompt for 11/22/2010

Write a story that includes the words: cloud, howl, arrow

Word count = 299



Steve sprinted into the forest, his heart thumping.  Behind him, his friends howled with laughter.  How could they?

The scene replayed with each frozen breath he drew.  Sitting around the fire, passing beers, they bragged about their conquests, but he only had one, his childhood sweetheart, Sara.  His buddies drank and made fun of women, but he didn’t.  His heart still burned.  Legs pumping, he dodged the wooden sentries until a cloud hid the moon, and he couldn’t see.  He twisted his ankle but kept going, fighting the memories, still they forced their way in.  Her visage wretched in pain as she lay on the hospital bed, life draining from her face.  Blood seeped beneath the sheets from the place that was to give life to their child, but the baby came too soon.  He wasn’t strong enough to live, yet strong enough to take her.

Moon beams filtered once again, lighting his way.  His chest heaved from effort and grief.  An owl jeered him.  Finally, he found it – their tree – an ancient oak.  He ran his gnarled fingers over its weathered trunk and caressed their initials.  She had drawn the heart and he the arrow.  They promised to spend their lives together – “until death do us part.”  He fell to his knees, hugging the tree, and released a howl of despair.

The weather shifted.  Snowflakes covered his flannel shirt.  He turned his back to the tree and sat with his knees under his chin.  In the distance, he heard their drunken shouts.  Fools.  They didn’t understand.  She was his life.  Then he heard it.  Her voice.  “Sara?”  She was calling him.  He tried to stand.  Where was she?  Ice crystals formed on his lashes.  She would have liked them.  He closed his eyes, and she reached for him.