BEWARE THE DEAD

The night was hot. It was a hot summer night. In fact, tonight was not unlike the night they had first met. It was three years ago now. Three years since they had first set eyes on each other for the very first time. And even then seeing each other at all had been something of a miracle; well, lucky at any rate. It was a busy bar, you see. The bar where Ben had gone as a holidaymaker, was packed to the rafters with lobster skinned tourists, and luscious, lightly tanned Spaniards.

It was love at first sight. Oh yes, such a thing does exist. It existed for Ben and José. From where he had stood Ben had known, and in that same instant José had felt it too. It wasn’t much more than a flash of eye contact over the length of the bar. Across tops of heads of the hoards of inebriated homosexuals, through flashing lights, and the smoke, and the glasses sloshing with alcoholic liquids. Across this battlefield of hedonism they had caught each other’s eyes for just a fragment of a second, and there it was: the moment had passed and the magic had been created.

Three years had passed, and still their love remained as it had from the beginning. Nothing could part them: not immigration or ex-boyfriends or difficulties with their jobs. Not even that thing which has the ability to push a wedge between all couples: money.

In three years nothing more negative than a few harsh words amidst the flare of the occasional minor squabble had passed between them. Within the walls of their cosy first floor flat a world of light and peace and love existed with no detriment caused by whatever was happening outside those walls in the real world, somewhere out there.

Somewhere out there is where Ben was looking. Somewhere out of the window. Somewhere in the night sky. There was a place, just to the right of the crescent moon that drew Ben’s eyes to it. There was nothing there, nothing to look at, but when the moon took this shape and this position in the sky, there was this one point in space that Ben’s eyes were always enticed into focusing on.

This night in particular he had felt the need to leave the safety of their bed and walk around to the window, where he could silently draw back the curtain and set sight on that part of the night sky which was special to him, and perhaps only to him.

It was too warm. Summer is a beautiful time of the year, and lying next to the naked body of your beautiful Spanish boyfriend, being able to feel the every movement of his young body as it brushes against your skin is something which cannot be imagined but must be experienced in the flesh. No matter how wonderful these things may be, there are times when the heat and the humidity of the summer night is just too much for a person to sleep through, and for Ben, to remain in his place of restlessness was no longer an option. So now he had found himself in that familiar spot by the window, dreaming into the darkness of the night. …