Page 21 of Sunset Catchers

Vacation: ruined.

Expectations: once again not met.

Situation: verging on calamitous.

Sunset Hour

The sky is pink.

The lingering anxiety slips away from my body. I can’t help the relief that pulls on my lips. I snapped a picture with my phone and added it to the dedicated album of pink sunsets already filled with hundreds of pictures.

I’ve just unlocked a new location. Very exciting!

I take this quiet moment to reflect on the day.

I’m exhausted.

A change of routine for a creature of habits like me will do that.

But at least, there’s this.

A pink sunset.

The universe telling me: You’ll be just fine.

“I’m okay,” I whisper while folding my arms against my chest to fight off the evening chill.

My head snaps in the direction of a sudden, squeaking sound. Browns finding blues. Holding.

Levi is sitting on his porch swing, a book on his lap. Straightaway, I’m embarrassed at being caught in this moment of vulnerability.

But then I remember; he doesn’t know anything about me. He just thinks I’m out here to appreciate the sunset. A pretty banal thing to do. A universal rite.

He doesn’t know what they mean to me.

He can’t decipher the childish hope splashed across my face.

I trudge back inside my cottage.

Through the window in the kitchen while admiring the last of the pink horizon from afar, I see Levi walk to the exact spot where I stood, looking up at the sky, with a soft frown marring his forehead.

6

Ilove my morning ritual.

It is the permanence behind it that I am addicted to. Wherever I am in the world, my day always starts with coffee. Since I was sixteen years old, I have relied on it to erase the last traces of slumber from my brain.

It’s always the same routine;

Brewing some coffee.

Letting the notes of the beans permeate the air.

Filling a glass with ice, then milk, then coffee on top.

Stirring it all with a straw.

Taking that first sip.