One More Rose Gold Sunset

Submitted into Contest #64 in response to: Write a romance that involves one partner saving the other from a fire.... view prompt

22 comments

Drama Romance

It was cold. Arthur’s stiff fingers fumbled through the slick, glossy pages of House Beautiful Magazine, rumpling cozy verandas and pristine pantries. This would do for kindling, he thought. He pulled the pages out and crumpled them into little balls. He would need to work faster. It would be dark soon, and Corbin would be back from his hike, and he would want s’mores, of course.

First the kindling, then Arthur would put on the bigger log, watch the fire twist toward the stars and burp with a loud pop of sparks. They would sit in their folding chairs—he and Corbin and Sarah—with their hiking boots right at the edge of the ring. The flames would grovel at their feet. It wouldn’t be so cold.

Arthur ripped out another page and crumpled it. Where had he put the matches? And the marshmallows? They must be locked away from the bears and squirrels. Once a squirrel had chewed a hole in his backpack (foolishly left out on a bench!) to get at his trail mix, Arthur remembered. You had to lock things up, maybe in the car, or one of those metal bear boxes. Twist and pinch; prove you’re a human with thumbs. Maybe the matches and the marshmallows were in his backpack in the bear box.  

Arthur was cold. He ripped another page and crumpled it, dropping it with the rest. It was getting late. Arthur could feel the mountain’s shadows stretching across the campground and see the colors begin their shift from gold to pink to gray. 

Where was Corbin? And Sarah? They knew these trails well, but they wouldn’t be out after dark. They should be heading home. They would be tired.

Arthur listened. He could hear birds catching up on the day’s gossip, their shadows stark against a fiery sky. Trees reached bony fingers into the evening, as if trying to grasp the colors. It was still and windless. So strangely still that Arthur could hear water running in the distance. It was fall and the river was warm and lazy, shuffling down the mountain at leisure. Not loud and belligerent like spring; still Arthur could hear it. He listened, but there were no footsteps—heavy boots dragging, tired, through the gravel. 

Any minute now. He needed to get that fire going. They would want dinner! Why hadn’t he started dinner? His chili should have been simmering for hours. Corbin loved his chili—brought friends out to the hills to sit around the wooden picnic table and eat his chili, all laughter and ghost stories and guitars, voices ringing out in the moonlight and chaparral, a warm fire glowing.

Arthur pulled vehemently at one more colorful magazine page. He really must find the bear box. It was always by the big oak tree. Had they cut down the big oak tree, or were they in a different spot this time? But they always stayed in 27A. Why weren’t they there now? And where were the footsteps on the gravel path?

Once he and Corbin had gotten lost. There was a certain rock formation (granite, Arthur remembered)—one bulbous stone perched atop another like a moss-covered snowman. Not something you saw twice in nature, but they saw it two and then three times. Going in circles. It was midday and the sun, straight overhead, was no help. Arthur had no idea how they got turned around. They sat out the heat of the day under a cool rocky outcropping, ate their sandwiches, and waited for the sun to travel one direction or another. The sky was rose-gold like this by the time they made it back to camp. And there was Sarah waiting for them, dinner ready on the wooden picnic table under the big oak tree. Arthur remembered the chicken and potatoes— the way Sarah would freeze the chicken in a bath of lemon juice and thyme and bring it out of the cooler a few days in, after it wasn’t a hard block of ice anymore. And the potatoes roasted in foil with garlic and shallots. He’d been so hungry, so happy to see her. 

But that was in 27A. Why weren’t they in 27A now?

If Sarah and Corbin were lost, they would need dinner. What did he have in the cooler? Arthur’s mind circled back: the backpack, the bear box. It was so cold.

Then Arthur stood, dropping his last paper ball into the pile of kindling. He knew where he kept the matches.

🔥🔥🔥

Over the hiss of the shower, Sarah heard the smoke alarm. She twisted the hot water off with a swift, solid movement and grabbed the towel hanging outside the glass door. What in the world…? Sarah wrapped the towel around her body without bothering to dry the rivulets that wound their way down to her knees. She wrapped a second towel over her sopping wet hair and walked hastily into the hall. She could smell the smoke. Her heart sank to the pit of her stomach as one foot followed another, propelled by adrenaline. What has he done? 

Sarah followed the smell of smoke out into the living room, where Arthur was tending a hearty fire on the coffee table. For one dumbfounded moment she stood and watched him poke at the flame with the kitchen tongs, stirring the curling paper, its edges disintegrating into nothing. Then she pulled the damp towel from her head and smothered the flame in three deft swats. 

“Arthur…” her voice was small, suddenly drained of all its energy. She watched as he stood, blinking. He smiled.

“You’re back,” he said. “I’m glad. Where’s Corbin? Is he ok?”

Sarah recalled what the doctor had said about this. Don’t try to drag him back to the present. It would only upset him. What would she gain by reminding him that Corbin lived three hours away?

“Corbin is fine,” she said. “He’ll be along.” Sarah crumpled onto the sofa, watching Arthur rooted to his spot.

“He’ll want some s’mores, but first dinner. Do you know where we’ve put the cooler?”

“No,” Sarah sighed. “No, dear. Maybe I can find something for us in the fridge. And Corbin...he’s eating with friends tonight, actually.”

“Oh, of course,” Arthur said, coming to sit by her on the sofa. “Just you and me, then.” He took her damp hand in his.

Sarah surveyed the damage. There was a large charred spot in the middle of the heavy wooden coffee table. Soot made ripples on the low ceiling above, and ash lay like a thick dust in the rug below. Nothing she couldn’t clean or replace, but it could have been so much worse. 

He’d never done anything this dangerous before in the two years since his memory started slipping. She knew things were getting worse. He was spending more and more time in his own mind, his own reality. It wasn’t unusual to find his socks in the freezer, or for him to watch the same movie three times in a day. But this— starting fires was something new. 

Sarah felt like the ground beneath her was crumbling away, and now she was falling over the edge of a cliff, waiting to feel the impact of the hard earth below. She would have to call the doctor. She would have to call Corbin. Would they need a nurse now, for those times she needed to run to the grocery store or, God forbid, take a shower? Was she finally in over her head?

“I love this time of day,” Arthur said, “when the world is washed over with rose gold. I’m sorry if you were worried. It’s good to be back.”

Sarah doubted he was back.

“We’ll have a good evening, just us,” he said, and the warmth of his hand on her bare shoulder made Sarah aware of how cold she was. It was so cold.

But his hands were still warm. That small fact was too much. Here was her husband, the same in body with his mind somewhere far away—a rock still radiating stored heat, the ghost of the sun.

Sarah felt hot tears run down her cheeks and buried her face in his shoulder, letting his flannel shirt absorb them.

Arthur’s hand tightened around her shoulder and he held her there. “Don’t now,” he cooed. “You’re my rock. I’m sorry, Sarah.” 

He was quiet. Even from the vantage point of his fine red-and-gray plaid flannel shirt, Sarah could feel reality seeping into his body, which stiffened under her. “I’m so sorry, Sarah. I wanted to make you dinner. I was worried about you. And the light. It took me back to the campground. I’m sorry.” 

He lifted her chin gently with his fingertips and held her gaze.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I want to remember you just like this,” Arthur said.

Sarah let out a wry snort. “Sopping wet and half naked?”

“Yes. Sopping wet and half naked, washed in this light, suddenly years and years older than I remembered you.”

“You can keep the younger version if you want.” Sarah’s lip quivered.

“No,” he said. “I want to remember our whole life together.”

Sarah looked at him. Who knew how many nights like this they had left? “Let’s have a good night—you and me. We’ll make dinner together.”

She stood as the shadows shifted from pink to lavender. “Come with me while I get dressed.”

“Do you have to?” He stood up after her and touched the edge of her damp towel where it was tucked into a knot.

Sarah wondered if he was also thinking of the way the sun burned most vividly before it disappeared. 

“No,” she said. “I don’t.”

October 23, 2020 19:23

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22 comments

21:54 Oct 23, 2020

Losing memory slowly is sad. This is a great display of love and pain and suffering and everything in between. There is so much in the lines, little something that just makes me want to cry. I love how you went about the emotions and the way Sarah felt when she saw him standing by the fire. The emotions were there, real and true and all I could do as I read was to continue and fall in love with the words. The end is beautiful. I've got plenty of things on my mind right now that you don't want to know. It's that inevitability of the end, whe...

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A.Dot Ram
22:09 Oct 23, 2020

Thank you. My goal was to show the love between them in the midst of this terrible situation. I'm glad that came through and it's not just totally depressing. Wishing you the best in whatever you're going through.

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17:42 Nov 06, 2020

Amazing! Keep it up!

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. .
01:54 Oct 30, 2020

Sad but cheerful

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01:15 Oct 28, 2020

This is just fantastic. I love that even though you didn't write a dramatic fire rescue, there's still plenty of tension. Once again, you've written characters with emotional depth both individually and together. The twist was well executed and flowed nicely so that it didn't feel like an "it was all a dream" moment. Sarah's mixed reaction to the fire is especially powerful and heartbreaking, and I love that anger isn't one of the many feelings she experiences in that moment of discovery. Thank you for sharing this.

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Tom .
12:43 Oct 26, 2020

This is such a well crafted story. Initially I had problems with how he was lighting a 🔥. Talk about looking for something petty! But as the memory problem came out it made so much sense. The way you bring it to reality is so artful. Thank you. I really enjoyed reading it.

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A.Dot Ram
16:10 Oct 26, 2020

Thank you! Are you saying his technique might have been off for building a fire?

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Tom .
16:23 Oct 26, 2020

Someone who makes a lot of fires would have approached it differently. But as his perceptions are off it actually becomes another factor of how he sees the world. My grandmother was a professional chef, when dementia hit she struggled to do even the most simple tasks in the kitchen. So don't sweat it. I live a little off grid, so most my heat comes from real woodfires.

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A.Dot Ram
17:06 Oct 26, 2020

Interesting. I appreciate that feedback, as someone who lights but the very occasional fire and may cheat with lighter fluid at that. You're right, though--with dementia, it's more the idea of it that matters.

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AJ Hensley
00:09 Oct 25, 2020

This was a beautiful twist on the prompt. Very well done and thoughtful. I also submitted to this prompt (my first time trying my hand at romance) and found one of the most difficult parts to be crafting meaningful dialogue between the internal musings. You did a great job with that here. Looking forward to reading more of your work!

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Julie Ward
18:12 Oct 24, 2020

Sob! I loved it. Just a beautiful story of love, loss and the acceptance of things that are to come. As always, your writing is so heartfelt. I like the way you start off in one place and turn it into a memory and then into a hard reality. It's the good kind of bait and switch and I can't get enough of it. I also like how you weave in those human moments - "sopping wet and half naked?" A laugh through tears.

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A.Dot Ram
18:37 Oct 24, 2020

Thank you!

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Julie Frederick
16:43 Oct 24, 2020

What a lovely ending!

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Echo Sundar
15:22 Oct 24, 2020

This story is so beautiful, reading the part in Arthur's memory was very intriguing and then you tied it together when he came back to the present. Great job!

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Radhika Diksha
10:08 Oct 24, 2020

You are such a amazing writer. The twist was so fine and good, it was a big change but you wrote it in flow. HANDS OFF to your imagination and writing. The end was so sweet. It would be better if this story, at least gets shortlisted. I would be honored if you give me you feedback on my story too.

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Jill Davies
01:45 Oct 24, 2020

Another great job. I love the way Arthur’s thoughts look back in on themselves as he makes his way through the delusion. It’s a good suprise when you get to Sarah, but I would have liked to see a couple of clues that he was in his own house. Strange things that would snap into place for the reader once we know what’s actually going on. Great end.

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A.Dot Ram
02:06 Oct 24, 2020

We were thinking alike, but maybe i was too subtle. The "river" was supposed to be Sarah's shower. And the home design magazine. The only thing real about the scene was the time of day. Light and shadows. And probably birds.

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Jill Davies
04:06 Oct 24, 2020

I got the river and the magazine, but I was worried they were too subtle because I knew what was coming. That’s the tough thing. Hopefully you can get good feedback from your other readers on it

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Riley Alexander
11:29 Oct 24, 2020

Personally, I feel that the subtle clues were quite enough because we were seeing the scene through Arthur's vantage point and since he was convinced he was camping it was apt that for a long time I was convinced as well. And to me there were more clues than the river and magazine... What about the lack of wind, the missing oak and his confusion about being in 27A and why they weren't? Well at least for me those were some of the things that had me wondering what was really going on with Arthur... Anyway, great story! Captivating from begi...

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A.Dot Ram
01:00 Oct 25, 2020

Thanks, Riley. Yes, I'm glad you brought up the wind because I'd forgotten about that. Yes, that was deliberate. And of course the questions and the things that weren't making sense. I wanted it to feel like something was wrong--where everything doesn't add up, almost like in a nightmare.

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Jill Davies
04:47 Oct 27, 2020

I’d forgotten about the wind too.

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The Cold Ice
06:16 Nov 06, 2020

Wondeful story.Iloved it.Keep writing.Great job keep it up. Would you mind to read my story “Leaf me alone”

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