Sunlight

Aliana had tied her hair back and when I had moved closer I noticed her eyelashes were wet from tears. She smiled at me for a few seconds. Suddenly a ray of sunlight caught her face and a sunburst of gold ringed Aliana's pupils, turning the electric blue irises into soft un-cut sapphires that caught the fading light of the day.

"You've been crying?" I asked.

"No not really." She looked at me then up at the trees. "To the trees I whisper the secrets I keep and the hopes I breathe. I know they are here to eavesdrop for the angels."

Aliana moved the back of her hand across her face; I could see her tears smeared along her arm. She wiped away a few more lingering tears with her fingertips. "We're going to have a son."

"I thought your doctor's appointment was next week?"

"It is."

"How do you know—"

"I just do...all right?"

"I see." I looked up at the trees. I felt Aliana's hand as she tugged on mine. Aliana had a connection with the trees. It was uncanny. I knew. Ben did to. Aliana was embarrassed by it. I caught myself smiling as I took another glance at the tress beside us. She noticed.

"I'm not a flake." She said as she moved her head side-to-side. "I know."

"Aliana," I began, "I'm not making fun. There's a fifty-fifty chance here. It's a toss of a coin. We won't know 'till the doctor does his tests."

Aliana's eyes widened slightly and her brows lifted a bit. "I tell you what. I'll make a bet with you."

My feet shuffled in the grass. "All right. What do you have in mind, but remember I don't bet with pennies."

Aliana thought for a few moments then beamed a smile back. "If I'm right. I want you to build me a greenhouse. I want a nice one, too. No plastic junk."

"And if you're wrong?"

Aliana's jaw twitched back and forth and she lifted her eyes up to meet mine. "I'll weed the entire strawberry patch—"

"Big deal," I interrupted.

Aliana lowered her eyebrows and wrinkled her nose. "If you let me continue; I'll weed the strawberry patch wearing nothing but a pair of panties and my shoes. You can pick out what kind."

My finger ran down the curve of her back then between the cheeks of her butt. "A white thong?"

"If I lose—but I won't."

I pulled my tie from my shirt and grinned back. "You're on!" I reached out for her hand. "I'd suggest you stock up on sun block. You don't want your pretty little butt to burn."

We walked toward the house when she stopped. "We'll need to come up with a name. A boys name." She winked at me. "And some hand lotion for your callused fingers when you get done with my greenhouse."

I kissed the top of her head. "Dream on." I followed her into our home.

Aliana had some clothes sitting out for me. I smelled of coal dust and I couldn't wait to get into the shower. No sooner had I stepped into the running water than I heard Aliana's voice. "Don't take too long. Mary planned an early dinner just in case Jessy grew tired. Mary is fixing pot roast."

Mary's pot roast is to die for so I wasted no time washing. I stepped out of the shower and as I dried myself off, I peeked into our bedroom. Aliana stood nude in front a long mirror and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Then she cradled her breasts in both hands lifting them up and holding them. She turned side-to-side. Aliana started to move her hands up and down her body, turning back and forth in front of the mirror. I wondered what she was doing when it dawned on me. Hormones were flooding Aliana's body and the changes were becoming physical. Aliana was looking for a baby bump. And while Aliana's tummy appeared to be as flat as a NFL cheerleader's stomach, perhaps just perhaps, when you stare at a cloud long enough you begin to see faces, I could see something was there.

I pulled on my pants and walked over slipping in behind her as quietly as I could. My hands came up her sides and I held her breasts. They were warm and oh so soft. The tip of my finger played with a nipple. "You've gotten bigger."

Aliana reached behind with her hand and ran her fingers through my hair. "Really? I mean do you really think so. I was you know...wondering. I think they are."

I gave her a gentle squeeze. "Oh yeah, I can tell. You're much bigger."

I felt her face blush against mine. "My bras are awfully tight."

"Why not go without one tonight?" I whispered. My warm breath blew gently pass her ears.

"I can't. I mean...Mary would notice."

"I won't tell." My fingers moved down her sides and across her tummy. "Hummm...hard to say, but you know I think I'm feeling a baby bump here."

Aliana whipped around in my arms, her face alight with the glow of motherhood. "You noticed too?" Her fingers touched mine and moved them up and down past her belly button. "I can tell. Oh Walter, I can tell." Aliana rose up on tiptoes. "I'll be the best mom. You just wait and see."

"I know." I looked at her naked body, "You better get dressed or I might take advantage of my wife in the bedroom."

She pushed me out of the room. "Finish dressing yourself. I'll be ready in a minute."

I left the room with a smile on my face and finished getting ready for the party. I had some files I left out in the car and decided I'd take them inside. I went to the car and grabbed the box and sat it on the ground. I looked at the trees surrounding our home and walked over to them. They were majestic. Tall and straight, they appeared like silent guardians that stood watch over us. I noticed one maple in particular whose branches and limbs seemed to surround our home. I smiled to myself then buried a chuckle deep down in my soul. With my arms akimbo I stared at the trees. You guys are house huggers I said to myself. I heard the front screen door slap shut.

I turned around and watched Aliana as she walked the length of the porch. A warm summer breeze blew through the railings and caught Aliana's skirt lifting it up to her waist for several seconds. Her hair billowed out and flew about her face. Aliana's hand caught a few errant strands and looped them over her ear. She moved down the back steps and I watched as her skirt rippled and shimmered on her body. The floral skirt she wore looked like a watercolor painted on a cloud that flowed with the wind folding itself together then exploding in a burst of color. Aliana's white heels were high while still being classy. He legs had a hint of white from the hose she wore. She stepped down into grass and walked over to me.

"Aliana, you look gorgeous. Absolutely stunning." My hand moved down her back when I noticed something was absent. I couldn't feel her bra straps under her shirt. I turned and my other hand meandered up her side and then over her chest. My fingers probed a gap between her shirt's buttons and my hand wiggled in. I touched her bare breast and gave her a squeeze.

"Don't," Aliana said as she pulled my hand away. "I don't want to go to Jessy's party with my nipples pushing against my shirt."

"Perhaps later?"

"We'll see." She grinned an evil grin. "We better get going."

We walked hand in hand a few steps toward the car when all of a sudden she stopped. "What's wrong?" I asked.

Aliana turned her head and looked back at the trees. I felt her fingers tighten in my hand. "House huggers. They like that."

My heart stopped. How did she know? We started walking again when I stopped. "Where do you want your greenhouse?"

****

Everyone had a grand time at Jessy's party. Jessy himself had three pieces of cake. I stuffed myself with Mary's pot roast and while Jessy and I along with the other men at the party talked farm prices and energy costs, the ladies were busy picking out colors and clothing for our unborn son. We left the party around ten and headed home. It didn't take but a few minutes, we lived only five miles away, and we soon pulled into our drive. I shut the car down and leaned over and kissed Aliana. I wasn't about to let a perfectly good day slip through my hands.

I opened the car's door for Aliana and then snatched a blanket from the back seat. I held out my hand and she took it without saying a word. As I led her over to the lee side of the house by the trees, we both looked up. The crescent moon appeared to have settled down for the night resting in the lush canopy of leaves overhead. Moonlight poked through the branches and shimmered on the grass like bright silver dollars as the trees gently swayed in the night breezes. I spread the blanket down on the lawn then sat down. I offered Aliana my hand and soon she was beside me.

I nudged Aliana down onto her back. I gently removed her heels, then I un-buttoned her shirt. Her bare breasts sparkled when a beam of moonlight struck them. I removed her hose and skirt then as slowly as I could, I slid her panties down. My clothing soon joined hers in the grass.

While I was on my knees, Aliana came to me and my arms wrapped around her. I felt her breasts as they pushed into my chest. A cataract of gold tumbled down as Aliana's hair fell upon my bare shoulders—a sensation I could never get enough of. My hands flowed over her body; it was so warm and smooth. I kissed her lips then moved along her cheeks kissing as I went.

We held each other in our arms under the old maple trees. The moonflowers that covered the porch railing had opened and filled the night air with their vanilla fragrance. Several pots of angel trumpet flowers soon added their perfume harmonizing with the marigolds and zinnias. The fireflies serenaded us with their silent song of love as they flashed their lanterns in search of a mate. We held each other close as we watch them stitch the night together.

"Someone put this evening on just for us," Aliana said.

I looked overhead at a trillion pinpricks of light. "Sure knew what they was doing." I felt Aliana's lips touch mine, and her fingers moved through my hair. My thumbs caressed her cheeks and we both smiled. I lowered Aliana back down onto the blanket.

"Make love to me," Aliana whispered. Aliana's legs move apart and she guided me into her. She was so wet and I took her. We held each other. The beating of our hearts synchronized and became one. Our breathing blended together. Then it seemed as though our thoughts merged. Her thoughts became mine—my thoughts hers. Then something happened. I don't know what, but for a handful of seconds, I—we—felt another entity. I opened my eyes and looked at Aliana. Her eyes were closed and she was smiling. I never had such a powerful feeling of love for another person as I did right then. We never moved when suddenly I filled Aliana with my seed, and I held her as tight as I could. We lay together under the night sky.

Aliana pulled her hair out from behind her back and let it fall down on her breasts. Her face blushed and it took on a crimson red glow. "Did you feel that?" she asked.

We've made love hundreds of times in the past yet tonight was different. She was right. I felt something unique, too. I rose up on my elbow and gently brushed her hair away from her breasts. "Yeah, for a second. I thought...well...it's hard to say."

Aliana's hand rested on top of mine. "God held our hearts in his hand."

A streak of phosphorus white light split the night sky as a shooting star flashed overheard then winked out. "Quick! Make a wish."

Aliana leaned over and kissed my lips. "I already have my wish."

****

For the next several weeks, the weather was unrelenting, and a heat wave of biblical proportions seemed to grip the world, or at least my corner of it. Here I was stuck in traffic with a non-functioning air conditioner sweating like a hooker in a police lineup. I had to make it to a special emergency meeting at the director's office at unit one. I looked down the road and all I saw were miles of orange barrels—Arkansas's state flower—they bloom every spring.

By the time I managed to defeat the expressway traffic the meeting was underway. I walked up to the conference door but when I turned the doorknob, it was locked. I heard a radio playing from inside. I knocked on the door.

"Who's there?"

"Walter Meir." The door opened just enough to allow me to slide through. My closest friends were sitting around the conference table. My pseudo-boss Paul Dirksen had his tie off. His skin was flushed and sweaty looking. My eyes glanced over at Marie, her mascara smeared across her face, her eyes red and bloodshot. Tony had his tie off, his shirt opened to his waist. I turned. Henry was sitting with his head down. Joan had been softly crying, a pile of tissues by her hands. I heard Peggy rolling a pencil back and forth across the table. Tears dripped down from her eyes and splashed onto the table. Amy sat clutching a small Bible in her hands.

"What the..." I looked up at Paul. "Did we all get fired?"

"That would have been easier," Tony said.

"What then?" I was growing uneasy.

"Perhaps you best sit down, Walter," Paul said.

"I'm fine."

"Suit yourself."

"In the next thirty-six to forty-eight hours a CME, corona mass ejection, will hit the earth—"

"There's time then," I interrupted, "to take measures. Shut Arkansas Nuclear One down. Ah, coordinate with the other utilities and let's disconnect from the national grid. That way we can protect our transmission lines and transformers."

"Walter, that's already being done."

"Well then why all the doom and gloom?" I looked at the pale faces surrounding the table.

Paul continued, "The biggest CME ever recorded happened in 1859. The first one coming will make the solar storm of 1859 look like a damp firecracker."

"The first one?"

"Yeah, the first one," Paul explained, "According to data from the SOHO satellite, there's an unusual build up of electromagnetic flux on the sun. It would appear we're going to be hit with not just one but perhaps three CMEs each one an order of magnitude stronger than the previous one. But..."

"But what? Every eye in the room, mine included, were on Paul.

"Lock the door, Walter and then turn the radio on." I did as I was asked and returned to the table.

"Walter, this doesn't leave the room, you understand?"

I nodded back. "What's going on?"

Paul palmed his eyes. "Ah Walter—"

"For God's sakes, just tell him," Joan cried out.

"Walter, the sun's dying. No one knows why. It's swelling in size. It's turning into a red dwarf."

I pulled out a chair and slid into it. "You're kidding? Right?"

"Do any of the eyes in this room look like he's kidding? No, the whole damn world's going to die." Tony practically spat his words out.

"What about the government?" I asked.

I heard Henry's chair move. "Walter, the only thing the government will be able to do is hand out cyanide capsules. Take all you want, your tax dollars at work."

Several of the women started to cry along with a few of the men.

"How do you know that it's true? You can't keep something like this quiet. There have to be errors in the data."

"No errors, Walter," Paul continued, "temperatures at the poles yesterday reached thirty degrees. As for the news, the Internet had been buzzing about it for months now. But think about it. All the spam you get, the Nigerian cons, the British lottery you won and now the sun is dying. Do you see a pattern there?"

Paul was right. No one would believe the sun was dying. "Why are we being told now? How long do we have?"

"The weather is going mad. It's the heat. Soon people will realize what's happening. It won't be a secret much longer. Power plant owners received the news from the president, the DOD, and DOE. Paul looked down at the desk then back up at me with bloodshot eyes. "People at the equator will go first, perhaps within a month. The further up north, the longer you'll survive. Four, maybe six months for us."

"We're all dead, we just don't know it yet," someone said.

"That just can't be. The sun's not supposed to go nova or another four or five billion years. Aliana is pregnant—we've started our family."

"Well let me explain it to you Mr. Engineer," Tony began, "If the CMEs don't blast our atmosphere off, the ozone layer will certainly be gone. The ultraviolet light from the sun will damage or kill any living thing on the surface.

"Of course, all modern electronics will be fried by the magnetic pulse. Cars won't run, trucks can't move fuel and food so we'll starve. As the earth is bombarded with more intense energy from the sun, we'll burn to death. There'll be no water—it will boil away. Understand now, Mr. Engineer?"

I didn't say anything. I knew what it meant.

Amy wiped her eyes, and then she looked each of us in the face. "What did we do? What did we do to cause God's mighty hand to sweep us away like ants from an apple?"

Amy's glaze congealed on Roger who sat opposite of her. "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Ooh, that's all we need now, a Jesus freak."

"Tony," Henry began, "I don't subscribe to all of Amy's beliefs, but I do know there are no atheists in a fox hole."

Tony shoved his chair out rocketing it across the boardroom and then pointed a stubby finger at Henry. "I tell you what I know old man. I learned you take what you want, when you want it!"

Henry leaned on the table, his knuckles turned white. "Then you've learned nothing!"

Tony jerked Amy's chair out with Amy still sitting in it. A half second later, he tore her shirt open. Buttons ricocheted off the walls and scattered across the floor. Tony yanked her bra from her shoulders and manhandled her breasts. Completely caught off guard, I froze, as was everyone else, except for Roger. He lurched over the table and with one quick and well-placed blow sucker-punched Tony, sending him to the floor with a resounding thud.

"That's how you balance a check book, Mr. Accountant!" Roger said.

"Damn, Roger, where did that come from?" I grinned a bit. I wanted to give Tony a kick in the ribs.

"State boxing champ back in '97, featherweight class."

Amy started to bawl. The kind of deep-throated bawl that I hadn't heard since those grade school fights I got into. "I'm going to die all alone!" she bellowed out.

Roger took his shirt off and wrapped it around Amy, covering her nakedness. "You're not going to be alone."

"No?" she asked between breaks of her tears.

"You're staying with me," Roger said.

Roger held Amy in his arms, cradling her, comforting her. He looked around the room then up at me. "I've never had the courage to ask Amy out. I thought we had time—lots of time. I wanted to be her husband..."

Paul walked over and stood by my side. "It's starting already. Ten thousand years of civilization will be wiped out in a week." He shook his head. "Are we all going to end up like Tony?"

I looked down at Roger wiping away Amy's tears, kissing her gently, and then holding Amy in his arms. I patted Paul's shoulder. "Not all of us..."

No one said a word for the longest time. I turned toward the door. I don't know what made me think of it, but a song I had heard on the radio the other day came to me, and the lyrics came spilling out.

Just a drop of water in an endless sea All we do, Crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see. Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind

I embraced Paul, who quickly responded in kind; such a good friend.

"I'm going home. I'm going to hold Aliana in my arms and tell her how much I love her. I'm not going to go down without a fight."

Just before I opened the door, I looked around the room at the faces of my friends one last time. I knew, as did everyone in the room, that we'd never see each other again. There were no good byes. No good lucks. No see you later. I left the room and I closed the door behind me.