This piece is my foray into light Sci- Fi Romance and I have actually submitted it to different Literary Magazines looking for Sci Fi and I received my first email rejection letter which I thought was cool so I archived it! I know this may seem weird but to get any response from a magazine is nice as opposed to complete silence or the excuse that it will literally take them Months to even acknowledge that they received your submission! Well, enjoy!
Ethereal
Finally, all those stupid fireworks and that disgusting sulphur smoke off the pier is over, I hate the Fourth of July not Independence Day just the stupid “celebration” crap that bugs the hell out of my sinuses and gives me a migraine, which pisses me off because I have to write and I can’t! So, at twelve sixteen in the morning I’m here popping aspirin like candy and drinking Whiskey like its water, just like every other sane person in Southern California who happens to be a night owl and alone. Well, what do you know a shooting star, I knew if I stayed out here long enough something beautiful would happen. I am so glad that I bought this place with my advance no weirdos, no pollution -normally- just the sand the Ocean and the pier right over there, now all I have to do is write this damn book! No, I did not just see that, oh my God!
“Hello.”
“Hello. I was distracted by the stars.”
“That’s ok, I was distracted by you.”
“Thank you.”
“Do you normally walk on water or is that reserved for special occasions?”
“I usually walk on whatever surface my feet touch, this happens to be salt water.”
“Good, then the world is not coming to an end and you are not the coming attraction for Armageddon.”
“I do not understand that.”
“Never mind. Beautiful women like you don’t have to, would you like to come inside?”
“Okay.”
She was standing so close to me I could see her breathing, then she kissed me on the lips and I felt time stand still and within that frozen bubble all of my senses sharpened. I could not take my eyes away from hers, I could only hear my heartbeat, the feel of her lips was so warm they were almost hot and I could smell the Ocean through her.
“Would you be willing to help me?”
“How can I not help a strange woman who walks on water and kisses like no one else I have ever met? Come on, let’s go inside.”
We turned toward my condo and I realized I was holding her hand and I don’t even know how that happened, this was the softest hand I have ever held her smell was like pure air but not quite. As soon as I opened my patio door I was snapped back into my reality of dimmed lighting, scented candles, a glass of Whiskey over melting ice and the Fifth Dimension song on repeat.
“By the way, what’s your name?”
“My name?”
“Yeah, your name you do have one right?”
“Aquarius. Yes it is Aquarius.”
“Aquarius huh, that’s your name, Aquarius.”
Honestly, who picks their name from a song they’re listening to? Then again, I just saw her walking on water for God sake, so she is literally an alien!
“Would you like a drink?”
“A drink of what?”
“This, Whiskey on ice! Want some or not?”
“No thank you. I like the feel of what my feet are touching and the smell of this space, may I lay down here?”
“Sure. Very few people have actually asked if they can lay on my floor, they just accidentally end up on it. First of all, how the hell did you walk on water?”
“I already told you, it was the element that my feet touched.”
“Okay, Aquarius where the hell are you from?”
“I do not know the word for where I am from, I crash here because I miscalculated the rings of Saturn.”
“Go on.”
“I am hiding my ship under that structure and it is regenerating, it will take seven of your Solar and Lunar cycles.”
“Where were you headed?”
“Venus.”
“Why? That planet is nothing but poisonous gas.”
“I need to take some of those elements back with me.”
“What the hell are you going to do with poisonous gas?”
“It is poisonous to your kind but not to mine.”
“Yeah about that, what are you?”
“”I am an Inventory Clerk and a Bipedal female, would you like to sleep with me?”
“Sure. Just not here on my living room floor, come with me to my bed.”
This whole place is my refuge from the craziness that comes with the lifestyle of the not quite rich and somewhat famous artist, it was one thing to find this place with the Pacific Ocean as my backyard but the bonus of the perfect one bedroom with the bathroom not in here. I can leave all the windows open and hear the lull of the waves, and the two lead crystal skylights in the kitchen and in here get bathed in tiny rainbows day and night. But tonight the pure magic of the sudden appearance of this alien woman lying in my bed surrounded by moonlit rainbows, I just might willingly die of sheer bliss.
“Are you an Angel?”
“Excuse me?”
“Your photographs of the Clouds are so close, how do you get to them?”
“I just stand on the ground and focus my lens toward the Clouds.”
“Will you hold me close to your body? I like the feel of you.”
“My God, you smell so…”
“Kiss me please.”
“Your eyes, your skin…”
“Shhh, just feel me here on this surface, let us listen to the waves and synchronize our heartbeats now.”
I have never felt so intoxicated by another woman and I hope I never do again, I simply can not feel this alive ever again unless it is with her. When she has to leave I would rather die than continue to live this monotonous existence!
“I am prepared to leave and my ship is fully regenerated.”
“But I am not ready for you to leave! I love you, please stay and I promise I will never leave your side!”
“I must leave now but I will return periodically. Would you like a long distance love relationship?”
“What? This is not simply diversity of state, country or continent! This is actually diversity of Solar Systems!”
“Yes, but this will be possible if you wish it to be.”
I cupped her face and stared into those ethereal eyes and kissed those almost hot lips and smiled through the tears that were joining the salt water that had first brought her to me holding her body close to mine how could I not wish for this relationship to continue?
“Yeah, we’ll make this work.”
She slipped into her ship and it suddenly shot away like a reverse falling star through a sky full of all the others that stayed up.