Her

                              Her

                                                       By Karen Taschner

          The heat was stifling. Every bone, every muscle, every nerve screamed at him to stop! He kept on at his task by shear force of will. His mouth was so dry that his lips were fused together as if trying to keep what little moisture remained in his body from escaping. His hands were sweating within the gloves that held the shovel. “Just another foot.” He thought as he plunged the shovel down into the hole. This soil was darker than the tan dust upon which he stood. “It must be close.”

   He tossed the shovel full of dirt aside and plunged the shovel back into the hole once again, not noticing the half the dirt he has just extracted was sliding back into the hole. He had been careless to dump the dirt so close to the opening in the Earth. His arms were just too tired to put forth the effort needed to prevent his efforts from falling back down the hole. “Two step forward; one step back.” He muttered ruefully to himself. He leaned on the shaft of his shovel, breathing heavily. The white-hot sun beat down on him. His worn straw hat did little to protect his beet red face from the intense sun. The heat made the air ripple over the horizon.

How he wished for rain. “Snow would be better.” He laughed a bit at the thought. “Yeah, like that’s going to happen. You used to love the snow, didn’t you dear? I remember how happy you get when the first snowfall of the season would come. You’d run outside and try to catch the snowflakes in your hands. What was it that you used to call them? Uh, that’s right; ‘Little Angels’.”  He shook his head to clear the memory. His eyes stung. He pulled a rag from the back pocket of his cargo shorts and wiped his face. The sweat evaporated from his body almost immediately as the heat wave continued to drag on. Yet, his eyes continued to burn. He looked down at the rag in his hand; blue with white snowflakes embroidered on it. How ironic. She had lovingly stitched the snowflakes on the placements for their table long ago. She hoped they’d be a happy of reminder of her cherished snow. Now the placements had gotten so worn that only a few rags remained. He sniffed and jammed the rag back into his pocket.

  “Yep. No snow anymore. Not for years. Not since that damned war. Supposed to fix everything weren’t you. Damn you!” He looked up at the sky, punching at it with his fist. “Stupid! Stupid! No snow, no rain; just dirt and heat!” His head started to spin and his vision blurred. For a moment he felt faint. Again, his body shouted at him to stop. “Can’t stop. Must find it!”

With a sigh he pushed the shovel into the ground. Straining to pull up another shovel full of dirt. The hole was getting too deep to get much leverage from his position up top. The ground beneath his feet began to crumble. He worked on widening the hole. The shovel getting harder and heavier to hold. He paused again, pulling off one of his gloves. With his bare hand he pulled out his cell phone and click on the radio app. Finding his favorite oldies station he turned up the volume, hoping some classic Rock-n-Roll would give his mood the lift he needed to keep on working. The music helped boost his energy as he continued to work. He bobbed his head to the beat and hummed along. “This is one of your favorites, isn’t it dear?” He smiled and continued to work.

   After a while he hardly noticed the oppressive heat. His skin was warm and dry. The hole was now wide enough the he could step down inside. This gave him more leverage for his digging. The dark earth around him smelled a little musty. He pulled off one of his gloves again and stooped down to pick up a hand full of dirt. He closed his fist around it. The dirt felt moist. He opened his hand and let the little clump of dirt fall to his. “Soon now.” He thought. “Very soon.”

  He was so weary; every fiber in his being calling out for relief. His throat wanted water. His lips were so chapped that they had started to crack and bleed. Another shovel full. This time his shovel hit something wooden and hallow sounding. He breathed a sigh of relief. He looked around him. The top of his hole was nearly level with his eyes. The lip of the hole nearly obscured his vision, but he thought he saw her walking towards him. She was smiling, carrying a tray with a pitcher of lemonade and two glasses. The heat ripples danced around her. He was suddenly consumed by an overwhelming thirst. He pushed the shovel over the lip of his hole. He attempted to pull himself up to go meet her, but his arms were so tried that he could not gain any purchase. “Dear! Please come help me out!” He called as he tried again to extract himself from his hole. No answer came. He looked up, out of the hole and she was no longer there. He called out again. Still no answer. Once more he tried to pull himself out of the hole using all of his remaining strength. His shoulders had barely cleared the hole when his arms gave out sending him falling backwards. He landed flat on his back onto the wooden box below him. He lay there stunned and exhausted. “Its cool down here. I can see why you like it so much. I think I’ll just lay down here with you if you don’t mind. I’ll have some of that lovely lemonade you brought, Dear.” He smiled and looked up at the sky. Dirt drifted down into the hole, glinting in the sun. “Oh, look! Here come your little angels now my dear.”

   He breathed deeply and closed his eyes as the radio DJ’s voice came on, “Sorry to tell you folks, but there’s no end in sight to this heat wave. It’s certainly one for the record books. Looks like our high for today is going to reach 135 again. Stay cool and stay hydrated my friends!”

 He chuckled. “The weatherman’s wrong again! Its just started to snow.” He sighed and sank into cool dark earth.