Bonzer Words!: The Northern Lights
The Northern Lights color this vengeful story by Mary Clemons.
Mary writes for Bonzer! magazine. Please click on www.bonzer.org.au
The solar wind danced within the atmosphere. The results were awe inspiring. Like a rainbow melted and stirred, the colors blended and claimed the sky.
We stood, hot chocolates in hand, in silence watching the northern lights. Jim, my intended, shifted easing me closer to his warmth. Bob wrapped Angie like a blanket.
The colors shifted and changed.
'Ah, there’s the green,' I whispered.
It seemed that green rarely took the sky dance. As quickly as it came, it went. Blending into blue, it was consumed by the red.
The cold chased us back inside the cabin. After husking off our winter coverings, we huddled near the fire. The colors washed the windows.
Angie smiled; I thought it was at me. 'I’ll go and see what I can scrounge up to snack on.'
'Need some help?' I offered.
'No, stay and warm up.' She turned and left. Both men watched her exit.
Bob sat down across from me. 'Jim tells us that you are applying to be a park ranger.'
I smiled, 'I’m already a park ranger.' My hand brushed across the handle of my Smith and Wesson 357 magnum. 'I heard there was an opening at Glacier Park. I’m looking for new scenery. Jim picked me up right after my interview.'
'Did it go well?'
'Yes, I think I stand a chance.'
Bob had me telling stories of my ranger experiences. We were laughing when I realized that Jim was gone. I couldn’t be sure how long it had been.
'I hate to interrupt, but nature calls.' I got up and started down the hall.
It was then when I heard them. There was no doubt what had delayed their return.
I nudged open the bedroom door. I glanced to see Bob appear at the end of the hall. He called to me. It seemed from a different world.
Jim was mine. Eskimo customs or not, he had betrayed me. He should have never said he would be my one and only. I had trusted him.
It was not anger, but disgust that colored my logic. The gun danced in my hand. The bullets met their targets. Red blended and consumed the blues and purples of the quilt.
I watch the northern lights segmented by the prison bars as the doctor approaches. With him he carries the injection that will allow me to enter the darkness peacefully. Tonight I will leave this Earth never to see the Aurora Borealis again.
As the world melts away, I ponder the words that would have been best left unsaid.
© Mary Clemons
