Contest Entry – Unpublished
NYC Midnight – Round #1
(Genre: Romance, Location: A Cliff, Object: A Ring)
Devil’s Tower
by T.R. Kisgen
Paradise has become hell in the Black Hills of Wyoming.
We’re almost to the top of Devil’s Tower. Grief clouds any appreciation of the four-hour ascent. This year, we bought better climbing cams and shoes so we’re making good time. We began at this place and now we’ll end here.
“We made it. Four football fields from base to top.”
My husband pulls me to the rocky summit and unhooks my gear. Sagebrush and bird droppings welcome us.
“How about over here? It’s windy.”
Johnny opens the flap of his pack and unfolds a red and white checked cloth. He spreads it out for our picnic. Like last time, he is on all fours setting rocks as he finds them, placing one at each of the four corners.
Johnny produces napkins and bottled water. I pull two sandwiches wrapped in tin foil and two small bags of chips from my pack. I sit down and attempt conversation.
“How many states can we see from up here? I forget.”
He points to show me.
“Five states can be seen from here. Wyoming, duh, and Montana is up there. North and South Dakota are that way, and Nebraska’s down there.”
Johnny looks as sad as I feel. He stretches out on his side, resting on one elbow. I still find him handsome. He reaches for a sandwich instead of my hand.
“I’m sorry, Beth. I’ll always be sorry.”
“’Sorry’ doesn’t fix it. You had sex with Brian. I mean, if it was a girl I could deal with this better. It would still be awful but this is worse. Couldn’t you mention you were into dudes before we got married?”
“I’m sorry. It was a moment. I didn’t know I’d lose you.”
“Then you’re a damn fool.”
I tug on my engagement ring until it rips past my knuckle. My wedding ring follows. I jingle them in my palm.
“You proposed to me four years ago. Right here. How could you do this to me? To us? I would never cheat on you. Not even with Brian, who is the best-looking guy I’ve ever seen. How can I compete with that? But you – all those nights you went to the gym.”
I make a grand gesture of hurling both rings off the cliff.
“Once. It happened once. You don’t want to be married anymore? I didn’t think of it as cheating because it was just my trainer. He took things to another level one night and then I told you about it. What about our counseling sessions?”
“Counseling? You really think counseling will make you straight again?”
Johnny scratches his chin.
“I’m not gay. Maybe I’m bi but didn’t know it. I mean, I want you. Brian was a surprise, and it’s over. I thought you would want to know. Do you need something drastic? Go ahead. Hit me.”
I slap his face and it’s like hitting a brick wall. My hand stings from contact and he seems unfazed.
“I’ll do you one better. Go ahead. Push me off the cliff. You don’t understand. I never stopped loving you. I love you still. It was a one-time thing. I can’t live with you hating me. And if you don’t want to be married anymore, then I don’t want to be alive.”
I lunge towards him, this Teddy Bear I committed my life to. Johnny is a big boy at six foot five, three hundred pounds. He has over a foot and two hundred pounds on me, yet I rush him. I drive both palms hard into his chest. All my rage, all my muscle, and he doesn’t budge. Tears run down his cheeks.
“Good try. I’ll make it easy for you. I can jump.”
He stares into my eyes as if searching for the love we shared.
We both spy movement in the distance, to my left and to his right. We turn in disbelief.
A huge fireball is streaking downwards across the sky, with a glowing white head and an orange flaming tail.
“It’s a shooting star!”
“That’s a meteorite.”
Johnny is standing tall and is riveted with hands on hips.
“Is it dangerous?”
He replies by shaking his head and biting his lip. He throws his hands up.
“Is this bad? Can it kill us?”
Johnny is a geologist and should know.
He’s rubbing his forehead with one hand and shielding his eyes with the other because the light is so bright.
“It’s not burning up fast enough. This bolide might crater in South Dakota.”
With growing fear, we watch the glowing menace travel lower and lower until it becomes a cauliflower smoke ball and then… impact.
“BOOM”
The air explodes and steals our oxygen. The ground moves under a growing sky of smoke. The earth looks like a rippling carpet just like in the movies. We are knocked off our feet and grab onto each other. I’m lying on his chest with legs splayed.
“Put your arms around my neck. I’ll break your fall if we go down.”
I can barely hear Johnny’s deep voice in my ear. If we survive this my eardrums are toast.
The rumbling continues but we’re no longer in motion. We rise up to our knees with me still holding onto Johnny. This cannot be happening.
Giant waves of water rush in and fill the horizon on all sides. Is it from the Missouri River?
Everything is happening so fast. Devil’s Tower becomes an island. Johnny is stroking my hair.
“I’m sorry girl.”
This scene is symbolic of what he’s done to my life, to our marriage. Our world was a beautiful adventure and then it was destroyed. Now I’m drowning in the mess of impact.
———————————————————————————————————-
“Hey, Sleepy Head. Wake up, it’s time. Jury finally reached a verdict.” The officer is beating something hard against the bars of my cell.
Reality sinks in as I open my eyes, remembering what happened to Johnny – what I did to Johnny.