Distance V

It was July the Fourth; it was the height of the Summer's climb, and the two of us were at our peak. Our love reached its highest capabilities on that night. It was just a ride out to see some fireworks, but it became so much more than that. On that night, I decided I would marry her.

I promised I would see them with her months before, and finally I could follow through. We had taken a flight up to my hometown, Portsmouth, and had stayed the night in my old house. Then we drove out to Virginia Beach the next afternoon and saved a place at the beach.

Every year, they shoot off fireworks near a certain place on the beach, near the Bay-Bridge Tunnel. It's dazzling, it's amazing, it's beautiful. I've went to it almost every single year with my family, just like I did that year. And just like last year, everyone was there, excepting my father (of course). Peter and Lily, John and ____, and my mother, and a few other members, such as cousins and uncles and aunts and just the whole family. We swam in the ocean, built sand castles, watched the sun drop under the horizon, gazed out to the stars, and in general; had fun.

I've never felt that completeness before, in our family. My brothers, I was finally comfortable around. We were all... happy. Too happy. It was only a matter of time.

It would never be like that again. Only a couple of weeks later, my life would come crashing down. I was oblivious to it then, but looking back, I could see the signs. The approaching sound of silence that awaits us all near the near the end of happiness.

But I guess the happy moments outweigh that defining night, right?

No. They don't. Not at all. Not for a second. I used to think that. Used to.

But I would give anything to get rid of her pained, bloodied face.

I would give anything to replace it with the image of her laying beside me on the beach. Her red hair falling into her face... strands of it flowing along the summer breeze. Those beautiful red lips, whispering the sweetest things to me. And those green eyes. Those bright eyes.   

Those eyes that I never want to see fade away again. Just like those fireflies did, at the end of that Summer.