The Red Amid the Otherwise Gray

For Frank Harmon the world was a colorless place, a place he slowly ambled through just trying to keep his life together. Married now to a disappointed woman, someone who expected something more from him, more than the dingy apartment they lived in, more than the beat up car she drove, more than the day to day drone of the Frigidaire. In his bland existence he came to believe his wife. Whenever he left for work each morning, after saying good bye to his wife, he'd mumble under his breath, "I'm sorry."

He made sure his wife never heard those words because he knew here response would have been, "Sorry for what?" and then go through her entire list, making sure he fully understood that he was the only reason she wasn't adorned in fine jewelry and clothes. As he walked down the stairs that spiraled in the center of the crumbling building he wondered if it would rain that day, not that it really mattered, the sunlight simply seemed a dull white amid the black and gray.

Going to work was a short walk down the street to the subway, where he followed the crowd down the stairs, boarded the first westbound train he could fit on and then stumbled out with the people at Van Ness where instead of riding the escalators up into the daylight, he wandered through a door in the bowels of the Metro and started his shift. As he headed toward the elevator shaft he saw Maria pushing her mop bucket into the restroom, strangely she was wearing sunglasses in the dim light of the metro station.

It wasn't until lunchtime when they met, as they did each week when he worked the Van Ness station. It was only after he led her down to his maintenance office, where he kept a small cot that the color returned to his life. There alone, they would step out of the faded clothes and touch the vibrant color of each other's flesh, Maria's darker, almost brown skin touching his fair, ruddy complexion. Her brown eyes would watch his green eyes as they marveled in her body.

Today it was different and the color he saw when she removed her sunglasses made him wince. The blue had now faded to a greenish yellow, a color he had occasionally seen on her body over the last few months. Frank held his hand out to Maria, lightly touching the bruise.

"He?"

"Yes," she replied.

"When?"

"Last week, someone told him I had been unfaithful. He knows Frank, he knows."

"What will you do?"

"We talked about it before."

"And you brought it with you?" Frank asked.

Maria nodded, tapping her purse before she placed it on his desk. Frank took her in his arms and kissed her, letting his tongue lightly touch her lips, waiting for her to open her mouth, inviting him. Their tongues mingled as Frank began to unbutton her dress, gently sliding it over her shoulders. He reached around and unhooked her bra. As her dress fell to the floor he saw other bruises in various stages of healing.

She kicked off her shoes and watched as Frank kneeled and removed her panties. Grabbing the soft flesh of her ass, he pulled her to him, kissing her pubis and downward. They eased back to his cot, where Maria sat down and opened her legs for him as he moved his head forward and pressed his tongue into her. She held his head as he began moving his tongue deeper into her and then upward to her clit. Her fingers weaved themselves into his auburn hair as he ran his lips and tongue over her clit, bringing her closer and closer to coming. Arching her back, she moaned loudly and came, quickly wrapping her legs over his shoulders and holding him tight.

Maria moved back onto the cot as Frank quickly removed his clothes. Moving carefully he climbed into the bunk with her, positioning himself between her legs. He leaned over her on his hands and knees as she reached out and guided him into herself. Frank began to push himself deeper into her, trying to be as gentle as possible with her, not just avoiding the bruises, but to simply be as tender as he could with her. He always felt that was something lacking in her life.

Even as the passion built between them Frank was careful not to put his weight fully on her instead he hovered on hands and knees, thrusting in and out of her in a slow but deliberate rhythm. Moving slowly he was able to hold off his orgasm longer and perhaps make her come again. Maria responded, lifting her hips up to meet each of his thrusts, wrapping her arms around him and lifting herself up to him so her breasts could press against his chest.

Perhaps she wanted him to be a bit more forceful, she did respond to his gentleness and as she felt him slide in and out of her body she felt the pleasure building until she seemed to explode into a kaleidoscope of sensation as she came. He paused a moment, feeling her pulsate around him, letting her simply enjoy the moment. Free now to simply enjoy how her body felt as it wrapped around him, he began to move again thrusting himself into her faster and faster, finally shoving himself hard into her as he came.

They had decided tonight that he would come inside her instead of waiting until the last second and pull out. Tonight they didn't need to worry about that so he let himself go, spurting his cum into her. As the orgasm subsided he left his cock inside her, carefully lowering himself onto her. They remained joined until his shrinking cock slipped out of her.

"Is it time now?" Frank asked.

Maria nodded. They both climbed out of bed and moved over to the desk. Maria grabbed her purse and Frank grabbed his thermos bottle. Moving back to the bed they sat down and Frank poured some of the cold coffee into the cup and set it on the floor in front of Maria. After placing the thermos on the floor in front of his feet, Frank held out his hand as she poured out a number of while pills. She then poured the rest of the bottle into her hand.

Looking over the pills, Maria grabbed a few of her pills and placed them into Frank's hand saying, "You'll need a few more than I will."

He leaned over, kissed her and then brought his hand up to his mouth, tossing the pills in. Grabbing his thermos, he took a big swig of the coffee and swallowed. He then watched Maria do the same. They then climbed back into bed together and drifted to sleep in each other's arms.

Later Frank heard voices, his wife's voice. He didn't open his eyes but the brightness of the room seemed to burn through his eyelids as he listened. His wife was talking, "Found them naked together... just some slut he worked with... down in the maintenance room... there's a cot there... no, she died, died, DIED."

He felt himself choke, and then suddenly the people were moving around him, lights flashed. He tried to keep his eyes shut but someone pulled them open and shined a light directly into him, the bright white boring into him. "Mr. Harmon, Mr. Harmon, do you hear me? If you do blink your eyes."

Frank blinked, if just to get him to stop shining that light. "Can you talk Mr. Harmon?"

He nodded.

"Say something," the doctor pleaded

"No," he replied, before drifting back to sleep.

It was a week before they sent him home and it was three weeks before they let him return to work. Three weeks resting at home with his wife and visiting a counselor until he was certified ready to return to work. It took another week for him to find out where Maria was buried.

So now, like before, he visits her once a week, placing a flower on her grave as he sits on the grass. After about fifteen minutes or so he'll stand up and walk back toward the Metro Stop, pausing as the edge of the cemetery to look back at the rose he left there, the touch of red amid the otherwise gray of his life.