Firefly

“Would you have regretted getting on that bus?” I ask her.

She looks at me with a gentle smile. “I wrote you that letter,” she eyes my pocket with the folded paper.

Suddenly, I take her hand in mine. She looks at me with a wide eyed excitement, doe-like and very curious.

“I meant it. That trip with you was the most enthralling and memorable experience of my life, Betty. I enjoyed being with you. Every single moment,” I leaned in and she played with my loose strands of hair.

“Simon?” She breathes and I smile.

“Call me that again,” I whisper and she blushes.

“Simon…” she says in this breathy tone that makes me feel so warm.

“Betty…” I breathily reply.

The night sky turns indigo as the stars fall like dew drops against our skin. The sound of the night life twitters and flickers. The fireflies fall around her sun-fire curls and I feel her heart beat next to mine as we close the gap and kiss.

She takes my hand as our tongues entwine. Her mouth tastes like honeysuckle and thyme. I can’t stop tasting her. She’s my favorite flavor. The only one I want to keep experiencing and feeling.

“I want you to make love to me, Simon.”

All my thoughts of being a gentleman swoon away as she placed her knee in between my legs, nudging the seam of my pants eagerly.

I moan lowly into her mouth.

“Let’s go into my apartment,” I say and she nods.

Soon as I can blink we are laying on my sheets and I'm tumbling around the layers of blankets with her. Skin against skin. No, I don't mean against. I mean we are attached, one perfect joint venture in a catacomb of aroused nerves and deep physical pressure that feels like a million degrees.

Yet, we are somehow alive. Her breath intoxicates me. I feel alive for the first time in my life.

As she straddles my hips on top of me, her tumbling red hair sweetly touches my face as she rides me, the intense euphoric gravity hits me and I deepen myself inside of my darling. She arches her back and cries out my name.

I love her. Oh, God, I really, truly love her. Every inch of her. Her dorky laughs and silly faces. Her deep intelligence that is based on truly fascinating ideas of science and technology. The way she makes love to me like it's the last day on earth.

She really knows me too. All of my quirks and inadequacies. All of my silly games and odd nature tips. My past. My present.

My futu———-

“Hey! Simon!”

I jolt up and rub my eyes intensely, the shrill voice hitting my ears as I wake up in a field.

Suddenly I see Cake, Fionna’s shapeshifting cat, batting her paws at me curiously.

“WAKEY WAKEY, eggs and cakey!” Cake says in a sing-song voice.

I sit up and yawn, the foggy part of my brain that feels asleep still active.

My heart starts to shred like mozzarella on a pizza as I realize that was just a dream. Well, a memory.

Damnit! I miss her so damn much.

“Come on, man, let's go! We gotta find your crown. It may be dark outside but we have a limited time before that stupid universe remote dies,” Fionna tells me.

I nod, tears burning my eyes. I wipe them furiously, my heart feeling like it is stuck on a dull pounding that reverberates throughout my old body like a violent gong.

We need to find the crown so I can become magical again to fight off foes easily. So I can save Fionna and Cake and everyone in her world. I know by doing this, I will become insane and my identity will be lost to the power of the crown, once again.

As I walk with my friends through the corn field, I see a flash of light near a stalk. Then, another near my leg.

Fireflies.

I smile as I have that deep gut punch feeling that Betty is still alive somehow, somewhere, someday.

In perhaps another universe, time and place…