Venus turned to me, tears streaming down her face. “Why did you do that? Why did you shoot him?”
“I didn’t want to,” I said, staring at the rocks below. “I didn’t want to hurt him. I just wanted him to tell me the truth. To tell you the truth. He deceived both of us.”
“You had a gun!” she screamed.
“I wanted to show you he’s not what he seems. You saw my bruises; you know he cheated on me with you! He was the one who made promises to me and broke them. He pretended he was different, but he’s not. I was trying to help you. To tell you who he really is!” My voice cracked. “But I never intended to kill him. I only wanted to scare him.”
She pushed me away from her and I tripped over a rock, falling onto the dusty ground.
“You killed him! You killed him!” Venus was hysterical now. She jumped on top of me. “Why?”
“Get off of me!” I yelled, pushing her away.
She grabbed my hair and we rolled on the ground. For a second I had her pinned. She grabbed onto the heart locket I wore, the necklace Dream gave me for Christmas. My neck wrenched agonizingly but I reached for Venus’s hand just as the clasp broke. She gripped the necklace in her hand. I pushed her harder and she jumped up, but underestimated the edge of the cliff. I watched her topple back, arms flailing, as she fell into the vast canyon, joining Dream.
I stood still, listening for movement, calls, anything, but there was nothing other than the normal outdoor sounds. I picked up my gun from the dusty ground and walked back over to the edge to peer over into the deep gorge below. No fear of heights would stop me, not when my adrenaline kicked in. Nothing stopped me.
There was no sign of either one of them. I leaned further, careful to keep my footing steady. Eventually I stepped back from the edge, my body shaking. I walked back to the picnic basket, sat on the blanket, and pulled out the bottle of wine. I grabbed the corkscrew, popped the cork, and lifted it to my lips, drinking the sweet nectar.
They were gone.
I’d never see Dream again.
Tears streamed down my face.
I sat there for two hours, crying and occasionally drinking, and eventually throwing up a few times. I drank almost half of the wine bottle but poured out the rest after becoming sick. I needed to stay sharp.
I walked to the edge of the vista again—funny how when you really have to do something, you can overcome your fears—and stared into the sharp drop ending in a vast, deep canyon below. The sun was high in the sky now, its heat beating down on me. I listened intently, but all I heard was the chirping of a few birds. I tried not to think of their bodies lying somewhere in the deep recesses of the canyon. The result of my actions. They were gone now. The thing was I hadn’t wanted either of them to die. I’d had good intentions. I only wanted to show Venus who Dream really was and to scare him. To scare him into what… being a decent person? I never should have invited Venus here. She was just a fly caught in Dream’s web, like me. She didn’t deserve to die.
I turned, grabbed the picnic basket and blanket, then headed back to the van. I passed a couple on the way back through the woods, the only people I’d seen all day. I smiled and nodded calmly, and they reciprocated.
I opened the van door, lifted the floor mat, and retrieved the keys. Dream hated carrying keys; he always put them under the mat. I put the picnic basket in the passenger seat. A few minutes later I pulled out of the parking lot and drove to the bus station. I parked the van in a back lot, put the keys back under the floor mat, and grabbed the picnic basket. I removed the purse I’d put in there, a loan from Raindrop, and put the handgun into the leather bag. Then I disposed of the rest of the basket in a dumpster located at the back of the bus station.
I slung the purse over my shoulder, handgun inside, and walked to a café close to the bus station. I sat there for an hour or so, nursing a coffee and a slice of chocolate cake, although I only took one bite. Sugar be damned. I had just killed the love of my life. Maybe I was the poison, not the sugar.
I called an Uber and stopped first at Dream’s grandmother’s house, the first home we shared together. Branch was cutting vegetables at the kitchen counter when I arrived. I tried to walk past without being noticed, but it didn’t work.
“Oh, hey, Sunny.” Branch stopped cutting.
“Hi, Branch,” I said.
“Is Dream with you?”
I shook my head. “No… uh actually we broke up.”
“What?” Branch walked over to me. “Really?”
“We don’t want the same things anymore,” I sighed. “I’m going to get some of my stuff and stay at Raindrop’s a few more days.”
He nodded. “You’re not leaving Listening Lark, are you?”
“No, I just need some time to myself.”
“Where are Dream and Venus?”
“They took the van, said they were going to the beach,” I replied.
Branch nodded and touched my arm. “I’m sorry. I hope you come back soon.”
“Thanks.” I went upstairs, packed my things, threw in one of Dream’s T-shirts and returned to the Uber, still waiting for me, to go back to Raindrop’s house.
I walked into the guesthouse, eerily silent now, and fell onto the bed, my body shaking, tears flooding, as my emotions exploded over what I had done.
I stayed in the guesthouse for two days, never leaving it. Raindrop stopped in to check on me and I told her I broke up with Dream and he was now with Venus. I also told her I couldn’t stay here anymore. She was sympathetic and said there would always be a place for me here. I was grateful for her friendship.
The next day I booked a flight to Philadelphia, using a credit card Aunt Lou had given me for emergencies. I hugged Raindrop goodbye but didn’t tell her where I was going. She didn’t know where I was from originally. We hadn’t talked about our past.
We lived in the here and now.
FIFTY-FOUR2024
Aimee
Two weeks passed, but no strange surprises. I admit, I was a bit disappointed. In the beginning, I had thought it might be Brother Jim, but as the gifts became more personal, my hopes that Dream may still be alive flourished. It seemed impossible, but who else would know about the dates, the snow people, the gold locket? I still held on to hope, although the longer he took without revealing himself, the more I wondered if it wasn’t a reunion he was after. He probably wanted to hurt me. I did shoot him off a cliff.
But what if he had lived?
Even if he’d survived the gunshot, what about the fall into the canyon? I decided not to think about it and to simply be thankful for a quiet life with Archie, my sexy, responsible, and loyal husband. A man I could count on being there for me. A man that I could trust. I couldn’t trust Dream; he was just like my father. So, why did I have this intense longing for him? To see him again, to be with him again, to be in love with him again?
