The Best Afternoon

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I remember...

I remember the sun smiling down on the bends in the road, and the rain tickling our faces. We drove on towards a sweet uncertainty, knowing only that this has been the best afternoon, the best afternoon. 

 It started when I made a call. I fixed my teeth and fixed my hair. And somewhere behind the fatigue in my eyes danced a little girl, her irrepressible joy marking what would be the best afternoon, the best afternoon.

 The food hung heavy on my tongue, and rested gently in my belly. Our chatter spoke of people and places long lost to me. Of pain from far away, and above all, of home, of home. 

 Pride and joy took turns to exult. My skin no longer burned in the fires of consciousness. It was enough that I was enough and far more, more than enough. For on that day, I was the best afternoon, the best afternoon.

 We laughed and spoke of stranger things. I forgot how the city was afire around me. The flames spiked with the spitefulness of memory still reached out, and found they could no longer touch me. We stopped for cigarettes at a bend in the road on that rainy day, and the sun smiled down on us that afternoon; it was the best afternoon.

A tall brown boy with caramel eyes, he stepped for me, he ran for me. He laughed for me, would have done anything for me that afternoon. 
His home was lovely, rich and cool; his bed was soft and called me home. To a life devoid of sadness, of pain, of sex on the cold hard floor. A life filled with just the here and now, with handsome beautiful afternoons, the best afternoons of them all.
His smile was shy, his kiss was soft. His skin was golden in the light of a dying dusk that called to us. Dusk that called us gently down into the darkness. 

 Oh, tall brown boy with caramel eyes, who stepped for me, who ran for me. Who cared for me for just an afternoon, a single, perfect afternoon. And as we stepped out into the night in a lazy uncoiling of our souls enriched with happiness, I knew that we would stay this way. Forever ensconced in perfection for a single, beautiful afternoon, the best afternoon.

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