Sunlit cafes want me to write

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February 12

A piece of sun was caught on her ring and it glittered, rainbows trapped inside. Her bed sheets were a pale blue, and they made her feel she was on a cloud in the sky, especially when the sun was bright and sneaky, making its way into her room through the gaps.

Do I want to wake up? She rolled over, stretching her arm out and looking at her engagement ring with the piece of sun and mini rainbows inside. It was a Sunday and she was lonely. She almost always woke up feeling lonely, because she wanted to wake up with him next to her but she couldn’t, because he was really far away.

Gauging the loneliness meter, she felt she was about 5.5 on it. Which wasn’t so crippling. It was just a constant dripping in her heart that she felt perpetually, not the overwhelming waves that could sweep her away.

She turned over and just like that, the rainbows and sunlight fell out from her ring. The red light blinked silently on her phone so she picked it up – an email.

Hey Sara. I hope you’re sleeping well, and dreaming of something that makes you wake up with a smile on your face. Speaking of dreams, when was the last time you flew in a dream? I dreamt yesterday that I jumped out of a window because I knew I could fly and I did. I plunged down first, though, but it wasn’t scary. Kind of like falling in love with you. Headfirst, too fast, slight threat of broken bones but just an underlying confidence of inevitability.

And then just as I was about to touch the ground I swooped up, and there was a rush of wind and it was pretty amazing. We should go sky diving together. Wouldn’t that be cool? Tied together, fall off a plane into the bluest sky there is, horribly terrifying but not so much because we would be together and that would make the fear taste better, exhilarating, and then we will pull the string together and the parachute will crumple out and expand – hopefully.

Anyways, I’m doing good. I miss you, of course, and work can be a bitch. But I just started a new project to develop safety initiatives in a low-income community on the outskirts of the city. It is a lot of research, cajoling, convincing, indirectly threatening officials and cutting away through red tape but it might just be worth all the trouble.

How are your classes? Are you terribly busy? Will you do something fun this weekend? Buy a book.

I love you,

Hussain

Sara stretched out in bed. 3.5 on the loneliness scale because his words always felt so good. They were like the magical silver sparkly stuff that comes out of a fairy godmother’s wand and swirls around you, changing your appearance, turning you from a sad little wretched maid into a beautiful, confident princess who could take on the foreign city, and get her work done, maybe even cook dinner from scratch.

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