By the time I got out, Kim was already bathing under the sun, amid the boiling, yet dry air. She didn’t seem to mind the heat the slightest; swayed by the waves of a vehement sun, she seemed lulled by freedom itself. If she wasn’t so pessimistic about salvation, it might’ve been the start of it. Her golden hair gently brushed under a salty wind coming from the not-so far away sea, while her dress dazzled an unreal light which floated like her skirt into the corners of noon. Well, not quite so, but it might’ve been around the time when you’d think on starting to make lunch. She was closing her eyes, as though greedily eating every gust of wind in fear that another instant like that one would never occur again so that the feeling would remain forever on her bruised skin. I took some time to feel and ‘eat the wind’.

Guess I was wrong since the oven that was the car cooled down a bit; my ass didn’t feel assaulted when it sat on the hot-looking fabric of the front seat. Kim threw the bag in the back seat and put on her belt before opening wide open her window. I started the engine and soon enough, we were still seeing too many vain illusions of water. As blue as the sky was, it felt infinitely high and expanding, with still no cloud up there. The sun might’ve killed all the remaining clouds, banishing them into invisible fumes and reigning supreme upon the invariant blue. Around the hill, the cicadas were deafening; it was so loud I couldn’t hear my mind. And the grass wasn’t even dry, on contrary, it seemed to have sucked up enough amount of dew before dawn to live for an eternity. Their gleaming green was a flea to the hill.

Kim went out of the car with the bag, and I headed to my room to change into my swimming trunks. Kinda weird that I took it, but maybe it was just me that I couldn’t properly tidy my clothes in a closet. It felt great when I cooled down after removing my t-shirt; I dumbly spaced out a bit while chest naked. I folded my clothes and went for a towel in the bathroom. Then I knocked on her door to check if she was ready. Even if she said nothing, I could hear that she wasn’t ready and that I should definitely not open, or else a criminal will be handed to justice. The lock clicked and she got out in the same unreal dress, with her other clothes too, the sun scream, and a blank sheet. She asked me to grab her towel, and soon enough, we were going down the hill opposite way to the town.

The damp grass gradually became dry sand while breezes blew stronger as we got down. I could hear not even a single wave beating the wet sand, rather, the sea was awfully calm. Just a clean blue stripe escaping into the world’s end. And the projection of the cruel sun seemed even more still than an image while not vapor seemed to run away from the water. My feet burned above the sand which might’ve turned into glass, liquid glass. Kim stood before me, and before the boundless azure of the sea and the sky, she seemed to belong there with her unreal and aerial dress. While its simple fabric drifted again to the blowing wind in such a way that it almost blurred, I placed down the blank sheet and sat down. She stood up for some time while I squinted under the blinding light emanating from the white of the sheet.

Her dress continued to puff from the saline winds, so much I thought she’d start to fly. Her feet stayed anchored to the sand, and so did the sheet. Unable to disappear from the earth by floating, she came to sit down next to me. She removed her dress and her round glasses, while I tried to look away, and revealed a canary yellow which shone as soon as it showed to the sun. Amid this vibrant scenery, her bruises still reflected no light. She started rubbing sun cream on her skin, and between two rubs, she handed me the bottle.

“You should use some,” she advised. “The sun’s beating hard.”

“I’ll be fine,” I hissed.

“Come on.”

“I told ya I’d be fine.”

“…Don’t come wailing at me then if you got sunburns,” she replied after staring at me like a fool.

I ran into the sea ‘til I’d fall; it still was shallow though, maybe I had just not enough strength to counter water’s resistance. Indifferent as it was, the sea was still quite warm. If it wasn’t for the stinging sensation in the eyes, I would’ve opened my eyes to see through the cleanness. A clear, polished, crystal traversed by infinite rays of light. I could see the sand at the bottom forming fractal-like, regular shapes belonging in-between dimensions. Kim’s swimsuit was more yellow than the sand while she timidly dipped her feet where the waves should’ve broken. I grasped her hand and pushed the two of us into the azure of the sea. First thing she did as shaking the water out of her golden hair was to say ‘Dummy!’, more like an insult than cutely. But then, she shoved some more water in my face, and we did that back and forth for a while. Her hairs scattered while getting wet.

She got bored and threw a last gust of water at me before swimming away elsewhere to end that eternal return. I got bored as well, and as every bored kid would do in a pool, I drifted on my back while looking at the sky. The sun looked like a poked hole in the blue paper of the sky. Kim came back to me like a curious cat, and staring at me from above, she hid the poked hole with her head. Some sun rays still philtered through her golden-glowing hair.

“What’re you doing?” she interestedly asked.

“Drifting away,” I replied.

“Is it fun?”

“The sky is just awfully blue. But wanna try then?”

She shrugged a bit and floated on her back. I grabbed her hand and without saying, we didn’t move a bit with such an indifferent sea.

“We really have to hold hands?” she casually said.

“If we really do drift away, I’d want you to come with me.”

“If that’s so,” she muttered. “I guess I’d want too,” even if it already was a whisper, her voice felt distant and blurry while my ears were dousing in water.

The sky was invariantly indigo. Every sound became a murmur, and vanished within the depth of the sea. Kim’s hand felt warmer than the water. Instead of us, it was the sun which drifted away amid the other blue of the sky; guess we just floated, only face out of water for a while. But we got bored again and she pulled me nearer to the beach while still holding hands. Then she sat by the bank and started molding shapeless shapes with the soggy sand. Salty water ran down on every part of her body; now that she was out, her lovely curves seemed more detailed under the tightening soaked fabric of her swimsuit. Sand stuck on her skin and seemed like shining stars in the space of her bruises.

Soon enough, we went back to the house; the heat reached its peak while we climbed up the hill. I felt like the sun hated me and tried to punish me somehow. Even with her aerial dress, Kim’s forehead gleamed under the hateful rays of light. I didn’t put back my t-shirt, but that might’ve been a mistake since I could hear the salt of the sea crackling behind my back, roasting like a nice piece of chicken in an oven. Resting my face on the cold table in the living room was heaven. She brought some ice cream straight outta the fridge while my warmth transmitted to the table. I gasped a bit when she took the ice cream to my naked back; I backed off and her eyes were satisfied for some reason.

It was quite late in the noon, and Kim didn’t feel like cooking anymore. I guessed the ice cream would be our lunch then, ‘cause I don’t know how to cook either. She handed me a spoon and started digging in the green, mint-flavored pack. The sound of breaking ice didn’t belong in that day. Between two scoops, she’d look out from a window to watch an invariantly blue scenery. Still no clouds, or a ripple on the water. The taste of mint was quite cheap in my mouth, but she didn’t seem to dislike it. In our usual silence, the cicadas were still more talkative than us. Her scent wasn’t hers, but the lingering traces of salt, spreading across the living room.

“Let’s stroll a bit after eating,” she casually blurted with a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth.

When only melted green milk was at the bottom of the pack, Kim threw the empty box in the kitchen’s trashcan. She turned on the sink and filled a glass of tap water before giving me another one. I drank it straight. We went out then and went down the hill; the heat stubbornly stayed around the same temperature, but the sun rays died down a bit. Wind was still puffing up the bottom of her dress but it wasn’t as bright. She stopped in the middle of the beach and wondered where to go; her feet landed north and I followed her. That place was really vacant, no one, no parasols, only half-boundless sand, and rising breezes. Sand scattered before our feet.

We reached one of these rocky beaches, with loads and loads of dark stones filled with holes in them. There was almost no sand, just in the interstices, or far from the stones. Her bruises looked like them, but darker. Her figure didn’t fit in that place; the contrast between the white of her dress and the somber rocks was too great. She jumped across the stones for a while; her dress seemed to slow down her fall between her futile hops. She found something funny in them. Meanwhile, I observed the lurking crabs and barnacles cowering in their holes, looking at me like some demon looking out from the cracks of the floor or from an underground.

Her pace accelerated, more and more hops, to a point where she seemed to dance to a fast rhythm. It was going 1-2-3/1-2 (5/4), in accelerando. As soon as her toes landed on the cobble, her other foot reached for another and repeated faster and faster. She slipped on a wet rock at some point, but her dress didn’t stop her fall; fortunately enough I wasn’t far from her, so I managed to grasp her. Her dress puffed out air as falling in my arms. It wouldn’t have been that bad if she fell, but still, adding another bruise to her might harm her more than in reality.

She stood up from my arms as soon as she landed in them, and instead sat on one of the rocks as if nothing happened. I stared at her ungratefulness and sighed. A very feeble ‘thank you’ escaped her mouth, before she resumed staring at the water. As she stared, the sea kinda moved and waves began beating while the winds only grew louder. I didn’t realize when, but a large chunk of cloud hang low above the horizon. Maybe they were looking for vengeance against the tyrannical and murderous sun, I thought. It was far enough so that I couldn’t give a damn about it. But it was very overwhelming just to see it and imagining it following me. It seemed to get darker and darker every second. Kim was not even slightly surprised or bothered.

As I tried to sit down next to her, my back hurt while hunching; I should’ve put some sun scream after all. She touched my back and I grunted in pain a bit. For an instant, I swear there was some satisfaction in her eyes.

“You should put some egg yolk on your burns, it helps,” there was a mix of sadism and care in her voice.

“Yeah, yeah…”

“RIGHT NOW.”

“Get up then.”

“You’re not a kid anymore, just rub some egg yolk on your back.”

“I won’t leave you here alone.”

“And I’m not a kid anymore too. You can go, I’ll manage going back.”

She turned her face to the sea and resigned on talking more. I sighed and headed to the house. The sea was aging as ripples scattered on her skin. The big chunk of cloud was my sole preoccupation while walking; I almost thought that it was chasing me. It was getting nearer and nearer, accompanied by growing winds and darkness. The grass on the hill seemed dry dead, and yet green, as though some gnome had painted each one of them with cheap green paint. Or maybe it was just the dying lighting. I searched for some eggs in the kitchen, since I really couldn’t even remember who stored them between Kim and me. I rummaged through the drawers but instead found my lost (confiscated) bottle of rum. I continued searching while holding the bottle under my arm.

Dumbass, I insulted myself as seeing dozens of eggs casually sitting by the top of the fridge. It took me quite a while to realize that they were there. I took two of them, broke their shells, separated the yolk, put it in a small bowl, and headed over to the bathroom. It was quite hard to see my back in the mirror, but I managed to find the burns with the painful sensation when I touched them. I rubbed quite a deal of yolk; my back looked like a yellowish plastic duck. Then, I went down to the kitchen, where my bottle of rum patiently waited for me on the small table. I poured myself a glass and chugged it while the yolk on my back dried up into a weird crust. There was not even the sound of cicadas in the house.

Looking out from a window, the singular, threatening cloud hid the sun almost perfectly; it was no more than a blurry shape in the gray sky. His reign had ended. The sea too was no longer a constant line but broke into thousands of non-Euclidian figures. Its previous state of ataraxia didn’t last for a while, not even half a day; between violent waves, it seemed very troubled, almost anxious. I took a not-so-warm shower (fearing that the burns would sting), and surprisingly enough, the yolk was effective. It sure still sting when touched, but I could freely move. I struggled a bit when drying up with the towel though. I went to the kitchen again and waited for Kim to come back while drinking.

With less sun to dry it up, the scent of the olive tree imbibed the whole house again. It almost perfumed my rum. I put down my glass and headed outside to hid underneath its branches. I kinda missed the scent. Its leaves covered very well the hostile clouds now spreading like fleas; it was comforting somehow. I swore at the sky when droplets fell upon the world; I rapidly came back into the house while a few drips had already soaked my t-shirt. It broke into heavy rain in half an instant. And in the other half of the same instant, Kim came back into my mind.

I grabbed an umbrella laying in a corner of the kitchen we’d bought the day before, but we ultimately didn’t use it since rain only fell once we got back. I also took the hoodie she’d worn the morning. She was most likely soaked to the bones under that vicious rain. I opened up the umbrella and stepped outside. The hill was slippery; I couldn’t rush my steps or else I’d have fallen into the mud. But I started running while tugging the umbrella when I got down. It was really exhausting to land my feet on the moist, hobbling sand, but I kept running like a fool. As rain fell, so did the sun, and night steadily approached. Everything got darker and darker.

The dull sound of drops hitting the sea was a constant white noise. Only my thoughts were louder. It was really cold outside, shivers were coming back and forth on my skin. Even as dry as I was, I felt like catching a cold the following day. What about Kim then? For how long was she soaked? I kept running. And there she was, slowly walking and gently folding her arms while the rain was beating down everything. She didn’t seem to care but only carried on walking, face down, watching the passing sand as her feet passed before it. Her dress was awfully bright, awfully white, and strangely shone even though the world was dark. It stuck to her curves and dripped more frequently than the rain itself. She raised her eyebrows a bit when she saw me. Then they arched down.

“You smell booze,” was the next thing she said.

“Ain’t the time to scold me, get under the umbrella! You’re more drenched than the clouds.”

She coyly went under the umbrella and we started walking toward home. I gave her the hoodie and she put it on straightaway.

“You went all the way here for me?” she asked.

“Why else would I? I even ran.”

“I saw that,” she replied. “Thanks,” she whispered. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t throw away your bottle.”

“Come on!”

“It’s bad for your health. I’m just trying to help you, okay?”

“Fine,” I scoffed. “You should take a bath when we’ll get home—it would be bad if you catch a cold.”

“I guess so…”

We carried on walking in silence. The white noise of the rain invariably continued.

“Huh,” she muttered. “Could we grab dinner in town? I mean—I don’t feel like cooking again.” She whispered again: “Would you listen to my selfish whim?”

“Yeah, I guess we could. Take a shower and we’ll go down to town, alright?” I replied.

A very faint smile flashed on her face and vanished as suddenly.