Free The Fun We've Had by Michael J Seidlinger Page A

imagined he wasn’t able to enjoy. Because of that, she felt a tinge of pity, followed by the truest range of self-loathing, how one must feel when completely alone, silenced from all connection.
    She shut her eyes from it all and enjoyed how this felt, how she felt: timeless and safe. Here is all she needed. Right now.
    When his grip tightened around her chest, it was enough for her to notice that the moment had passed.
    She could feel his shivers through his bloated belly. Though she couldn’t see the shark, the effect of its appearance seeped through him right into the pit of her stomach.
    She bit her lower lip, tasting what he had tasted upon sipping seawater.
    She could see the sun quickly rising. Its appearance brought not the beauty of a sunny day but rather what the ghosts had warned her about.
    Love could be so blinding, it almost fooled her into thinking that she wouldn’t have a problem holding on. To think, forgetting the trajectory of the story, foolishly pretending that it wasn’t going to end the way this is written to end. Looking at him, she could see it plain as the previous day.
    They finally have each other, where no one could ever judge what they had, and yet neither would be able to enjoy it.
    Counting how many turns remained, she knew there wouldn’t be much time left. And then she saw it .
    A shark fin.
    Right on cue.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

     
    HIS TURN
     
     
     
     
     
    Shortly after the shark fin, the sun gave its warning and receded behind a cloudy, darkening sky. The sun had no reason to remain. Gave them little more than a warning before it left him to fend off the drizzle that soon became a soft, delicate rain.
    “Stay in my arms,” he warned.
    It would be right to keep her safe. Whatever it takes.
    He looked over the edge of the coffin. The darkening sky made it difficult to see much of anything. He wouldn’t be fooled; the shark was there. And indeed, soon enough, he saw it.
    Worse: The shark could be seen in the water, the light grey of its body, the dead stare a reminder of his demise.
    The inevitable demise.
    How foolish must you be to hold on? Life has elapsed. It was time to let go. Pass on. The aftermath would be the afterlife, as dictated by blind faith. What waited for him over the horizon, past the words of warning that seemed to block his view? He wouldn’t be able to know without letting go, without letting the coffin float in that direction, the direction where only he can go, the direction where they part ways.
    No. Words on the horizon read like commands:
    KEEP HER SAFE.
    CLOSE YOUR EYES.
    SHE LOVES YOU.
    LOVE HER BACK.
    To which his replies were instant, honest, and true:
    He would.
    He did.
    He does.
    He always will.
    The hero role took hold and the soft rains and darkened sky tore the moment, replacing it for the beginning of what would be a deeply-rooted fear of the sea, of the waters and what they hid from him, rising to the surface, building into a boil.
    He saw it on the horizon, the one statement he needed most:
    YOU CAN.
    And it might have been new, what happened next; his actions, so admirable of a fight to pull her close, to live in this moment, despite the plain melancholy of this tale:
    It is told in the past tense. Living in the past, there is no present to save you, no future to explore. All that can be merely was, and if it weren’t then, it never would be.
    And this is how it will come to pass. It already had, now is merely a retelling of the tale. Not for the sake of it but for his sake, a hero in death, a simple man in life.
    The shark ran its body into the coffin, pushing it to one side. Hold her. Hold her now.
    “No!” he shouted.
    The rain grew stronger. The softness of this rain concealed the true danger. What little hair he had left wilted. Skin burning, bubbling, and peeling. Not that he felt any of it.
    There would be no feeling. It was only physical.
    The pain, it had long since passed. A