They lay on the beach in the dark, intertwined. The wind had risen from the depths and peppered them with stinging sand like harsh words. They kept low in the dunes, feeling vulnerable and hoped the whole world would go away. The sky had filled with mad clouds and the sea was a churning engine.

Dark figures stood further along the beach like sentinels with ambiguous intentions towards the prone couple. The wind flayed their exposed skin with cold lashes but nature had no power that night. It was enough that they were with each other.

She lay alone in the seedy motel, supine on the lumpy bed. Memories lay over her like petals and the air conditioner breathed and sighed. The room surrounded her while the dim light from the television caressed and kissed. She was never alone.

Later that night her dreams danced across the dunes, seeking that which she had never lost. Her imperfect world was made whole in the crucible of passion’s flame. She never noticed the traffic’s grumble nor the bar fridge rant and rave. She only heard her lover’s heartbeat and the insistent hiss of the waves.