by Scott Toney
here. And as a person, well, I’d have to say the people around me do. I’ve lived here all my life and there is a great small community here, even if most of the people we usually see are tourists.”
He thought for a moment. “One of the things that’s changed me and meant a lot to me happened last year. I was helping do renovations to our church, painting at the time actually, when a homeless man walked up to me and asked if he could join us. I had never seen him before but he said he had lived in the Outer Banks for years. He worked beside me the next few days as we painted and worked on small interior repairs. And in that time I learned so much about the struggles he dealt with in his everyday life and just how much like me he actually was. I had always viewed the homeless as people who weren’t as strong as me, who just couldn’t make it. But I learned what a good man he was. The things he deals with daily, the elements and the uncertainties, make him a stronger man than I could hope to be. We’ve been friends since that day and we meet once a week at a local restaurant to keep that up. I pay for his meal and he gives me his history and time.”
Ben curved his spoon over the top of his ice-cream, getting a nice layer to enjoy. “I guess it’s not me that drives me, but that man, my dad, my mom and all of the people I know here. The things I experience inspire me. They make me want to help make Avon a better place, to be a better person.” He looked into Caroline’s deep blue eyes as she listened to him. “Is that what you meant? It may sound silly, but that’s what’s been on my mind since I met that man. I’m actually meeting him tomorrow for lunch.”
“You always surprise me, Ben. You’re interesting. I’m not sure you know that though.” She took another bite. They were both almost done eating now. “Your story reminds me of a bridge in Pittsburgh that I walk across when I meet my dad for lunch downtown. There is this homeless couple that is always sitting on one side of the bridge. Most people just walk by and ignore them, but I always give something if I have change or a dollar on me. You make me wonder what kind of people they are.”
The sun had almost set completely as they finished, with just a deep red hue illuminating the sparse clouds above them. As they threw away their empty bowls, Caroline turned with a smirk to him. “So when are you picking me up tomorrow to eat lunch with you guys?”
Ben almost laughed. “Not that I’m complaining, but it seems like you are trying to have a little control over my days until you go back to Pittsburgh. Next, you will tell me that I should help you paint again tomorrow after lunch.”
Caroline clicked on her flashlight and illuminated the darkness that was falling before them. “Didn’t you already know that? I was hoping you’d say yes.”
“It would be my pleasure. And I’ll pick you up around noon.”
They walked through the darkness together, shining their flashlights down the street and talking until they came to The Ocean’s Whisper’s door. Down the shore the ocean water beat against the sand.
He wanted to take her hands, to kiss her, but he couldn’t bring up the nerve to do it. “Have a good night,” he said and bowed, before heading down the beach house’s deck stairs.
“Good night, Ben! Thank you for a wonderful day!”
Ben turned around to look at her as he stood by the water moving up and down the beach. “It was my pleasure! I can’t wait to see you again tomorrow!” With another wave he watched her open her door and started heading down the beach toward his home. Moonlight reflected off the ocean and illuminated his way. What an amazing day! he thought while watching a small crab scurry before him and out of his vision.
Then suddenly he felt something crash against his back and he landed face first on the beach. At first he was afraid it was John, but as he rolled over and sat up he saw Caroline’s beautiful smile and her moonlit form looking back at him. She came to him, took his surprised face in her hands and brought his lips to hers.
They were soft, sending a warm shiver through his body. And as he lay down in the sand with her above him, the moonlight shining through her hair falling about his face reminded him of stars, stars more beautiful than those that were actually in the sky. They kissed for a moment longer, her body barely touching his above him, and then she stood, holding a finger to his lips.
She took a step away from him as he stood. “Good night, Ben,” she spoke with soft emotion. “I had a lovely day.”
Ben stood, speechless, watching this amazing girl head back up the beach. He didn’t follow her, only watched in amazement as the girl he was falling hard for made her way back to The Ocean’s Whisper and turned out its outdoor light.
4
Dark, silent night consumed the world around him as John sat in a rickety old wooden chair. A cigarette was in his hand, the glow of its embers the only light in the room as he peered out its window, into Caroline’s room in the house next door. He was careful to keep the cigarette’s embers out of view of the window.
He watched with a hollow glare as she undressed, her shirt rising over her chest as she pulled it off. She slid off her shorts and his heart raced as he watched her pull on night clothes. I will have her again. It is only a matter of time.
Caroline crossed the room and stood at the sliding door that led to the porch. She stood, a shadow against the room’s light, her hair and clothes moving in the wind as she opened the door and took in the night air.
Does she know I’m here? John was still, careful not to move at all. At one time he swore she looked directly at him. What if he went to her tonight? Would she realize that she was his? Would she go with him?
Caroline turned then, looking out at the moon over the ocean and up at the stars. A shiver raced through John as he watched her wipe tears from her eyes. She closed the door and turned, going toward the light switch.
“No, don’t go,” he whispered into the cold nothing about him.
Her light went off. He could see nothing but starlight falling about the house.
Bringing his cigarette up to his mouth, without care of if he could be seen, John took a long drag, watching the embers burn and fade to ash on its end. He dropped it on the wooden floor beside him. He let its heat ignite on worn wood there, barely alert as its fire slowly lit the wood around it. His head pounded from the stress, from needing to have her here in this room with him.
He watched as the flames burned and began moving like a web over the room’s floor. It would go out, he knew it would. A cigarette wouldn’t do much damage. But what if… He reached for two plastic lighters in his pocket and threw them on the floor near where the flames were stretching. He smashed his boot into them, cracking them open so that the lighter fluid seeped out. With a rush the lighter fluid ignited, kindling a dull orange light in the room around him.
John could feel warmth coming off of the catching flames. “Let the fire burn,” he spoke. “Let it rise. Let her feel me.” He took the aged chair he had been sitting on and leaned it over the fire before grabbing his gun and beer and heading for the door. He left his used beer bottles in the room. A poisonous smoke fumed up from the lighter fluid, searing his lungs. He hacked and coughed while standing in the doorway for a moment.
He hurried quickly down the stairwell and out of the house, to his car. As he started his engine, his gun propped in the seat beside him, he noticed a shadow shaped like a man moving in the darkness of the garage. What was the shadow doing there? There was no time.
With his headlights off, John backed his black Dodge Charger out of the garage, quickly making his way to the road before he could be seen. As his headlights clicked on, a car passed him, slowing down for a moment, and then accelerating away.
Behind him the beach house room was lit with flames.
5
Ben lay in bed, euphoric over his kiss with Caroline, as he watched the moon and stars outside his window. It was so surreal. His heart was still beating quickly in his chest and he knew it would be hours before he would get sleep. He just couldn’t believe it was real.
She kissed me, he told himself, still tryi
ng to truly grasp that fact with his mind. Wow.
He closed his eyes, feeling the cool sheets over him as he relaxed in the cushion of his bed. He pictured the starlight coming through her hair as she came down to kiss his. Ben breathed a deep sigh. “Caroline,” he let her name roll off his tongue and then let his mind head toward sleep.
Ben breathed softly as the night came to him. He turned in his bed.
Somewhere in his subconscious, he heard a siren. It was distant at first, then grew and grew until he shook awake. The sky outside his window was lit a faint orange. The smell of smoke wafted towards him.
Ben woke quickly, stumbling out of bed and then catching himself on his bedpost before pulling on shorts lying nearby. “Mason!” he shouted. “There’s fire! Something’s wrong!”
Soon he was going down the dark hall outside his room. He flicked on the hall light and squinted to see Mason coming from his room. They grabbed flashlights, and as they ran out on the beach Ben spotted flames licking up to the sky from the abandoned house beside The Ocean’s Whisper. A large crowd had gathered there, held back from the fire by the red engine and firemen pumping water up into the flames. He couldn’t see Caroline, but knew she was there. Will the flames spread to their house? he wondered as a hard breeze blew through him.
“That’s
