Evelyn Earth Part 10

The sleeping part didn’t even turn out to be the most awkward thing about the night it was the getting ready for bed part that took the cake.

    After my swim in the less than clean water of the docks I was in need of a shower, but since water was a precious commodity I resigned to wiping myself down with baby wipes under the glow of a propped up LED torch. My hair was another issue. It looked great, salty beach hair really suited me. It fell down in stiff waves around my shoulders, but beauty did nothing for the smell. I doused it in leave in conditioner and was surprised at the pleasant change in odour.

As I pulled out some of my face moisturizer I paused. Was I really doing this? When did looking good for a guy I had just met become my top priority? I put the moisturizer back on the shelf and closed the vanity mirror. My reflection looked ghostly. The torch was angled too close to my face and gave it a gaunt quality that unsettled me. I leaned closer and suddenly as a quick flash I saw myself standing outside. The flutter of leaves, the shade of a tree, and then it was gone. My towel wrack stared plaintively back at me.

I decided that primping for a necessary sleep over, one in which the guy was more of a supervisor of bodily harm than an instigator of bodily pleasure, was stupid. What I had sorely missed the most was sleeping in my white fluffy bed clad in my white cotton pyjamas. Luckily I had left them on top of the hamper and as I pulled the soft t-shirt over my head and stepped into my short shorts I felt more comfortable than I had in a long time. My whole body was sore, but at least I was semi-clean and wearing clean-ish clothes.

I had handed Owen another box of baby wipes before I had begun this silly routine and as I stepped out of the bathroom I caught him mid ‘shower.’ He was standing topless in the middle of my bedroom trying in vain to wipe down his back. He was still wearing his faded grey shorts, but without the whole ‘I’m a survivor’ outfit he looked just like any other guy. Especially amidst my frozen in time bedroom, I could imagine this as being any other day from…before.  

“Here, let me do that” I stepped forward and took the wipe from him. I placed my torch down next to his and the combined light danced over the ceiling illuminating the room in a soft white glow. I glided the baby wipe up and down his tanned skin making sure I covered every inch of his rather broad back. The slow deliberate movements calmed me down and my nervous energy slowly seeped away. He didn’t move a muscle while I worked, but as I glanced in the reflection of my mirrored wardrobe doors I caught him staring at me. That’s when I noticed my beloved cotton pyjama top was a bit more than see through and all my anxiety came flooding back. I hurriedly finished wiping down his back and jumped into bed under the safety of the covers where my beet red face and exposed nipples were under wraps. I wasn’t sure if it was chivalry or just impeccably feigned nonchalance, but he didn’t say a word.    

I pointed out some old soccer shorts I had inherited from a male cousin that he could wear and closed my eyes as he grabbed them and moved to put them on. I heard the double click of the torches and felt the rustle of sheets as he climbed into bed.

“Goodnight”

“Goodnight”

 I had never been a heavy sleeper and it took me the better part of an hour to fall asleep. The whole time I was painfully aware of his body next to mine. I took great care not to touch him, but I could still feel the heat coming off him in waves. After only a few minutes I could hear his breathing level out. I envied all men and their ability to fall asleep under any circumstances.   

                She felt uncomfortable. There was something blocking her path. It wasn’t a stone or a river, but never-the-less the more she tried to move deeper the more she found herself stuck. She peered out into the distance and something inside her shifted.

                I was standing in my old high school. Everyone that I used to know was milling about trying to delay the march to the class rooms as much as possible. A bell tolled. I turned around and…

                She was spinning around in circles. The dust was billowing around her as she was raised up on the currents of the wind. She was a hurricane…

                Suddenly Brian runs up to me and grabs me by the shoulder. “Oh my fucking God Evie a tornado is coming this way!”

                “What?” I mumble. I’m confused, the school has disappeared and we’re standing in a field of dried wheat. The stalks are swaying back and forth, back and forth…back…forth…

                “Mmmgh” my eyes spring open.

                “Mehmehh” I look to my left and see Owen mumbling in his sleep. His left arm is flung over my stomach and his face is squashed against the pillow. I think maybe his mumbling sounds are him trying to breathe. I ease his arm off me and roll onto my side facing him. Our faces are only centimetres apart and I feel his breathe mingling with mine. Gently I nudge his shoulder and he responds to my touch by shifting more onto his side. He emits a small sigh of contentment before slamming his arm over me once again. It’s not so bad like this and I drift back off to sleep.

                In the morning I wake up alone. For those sweet few seconds I stretch out my body and it seems like everything is normal. Memory is a bitch though she creeps up on you just when you’re enjoying her absence the most. I sit up and call out for Owen.

                “I’m in the kitchen!” he calls back to me. I rub the sleep from my eyes and climb along my bed to reach the bedside table. One of my watches is sitting there, right where I left it weeks and weeks ago. It’s 10am.

                I quickly change into something less see-through and stumble out into the kitchen.

                “Morning sleeping beauty” he smiles up at me. He’s lying on his stomach on my ‘fall’ mattress with a book propped up in front of him.

                “Mornin’” I mumble back.

                “I can’t believe you have the Game of Thrones set” he grins even more widely, “I was halfway through this before me and Oliver set out from home” he waves my copy of A Feast For Crows at me.

                “Hah! No way, those are like my favourite books of all time” I return his smile, but then I remember that George. R. R. Martin would have been half way through writing The Winds of Winter before the world self-destructed and my smile wilts.

                “There’s still two more books that haven’t come out” I answer in reply to his quizzical look, “doesn’t look like we’ll get to find out what happens in the end.”

                “Oh don’t be like that Evie” he jumps up and puts me in a bear hug, “I’m sure Daenerys smokes everyone in the end!” I struggle free from his suffocating grip and punch him in the arm.

                “Have you eaten yet?” I ask.

                “Nope, I was waiting for you to wake up. You know you slept like a log last night. I didn’t even hear a peep out of you.”

                “As if you would have noticed! You were out like a light within two minutes” I laughed. He just smiled back at me and for some reason he looked like he was hiding something. Like maybe he was secretly watching me sleep. No way.

                “Well let’s see. We have a choice of canned Champignons or…dry Mi Goreng?”

                “I’ll go the mushrooms please.” We ate in silence, until Owen suddenly looked up at me with a worried expression, “you don’t mind if I take the rest of the books with me do you? I’ll give them back I promise.” He looked so serious that I almost choked on my tiny mushroom.

                “Sure” I stifled a laugh, “you can keep them.” For some reason I just knew that they weren’t as special to me anymore. A gun was special. Food was special. Some books that I had already read, well, they could be parted with. I returned to my meagre breakfast with a mixture of nostalgia and worry. The world had changed so much in such a short time and we had to change with it.