A SUNSET
She walks out of the library to see him sitting on the steps leading to it. She walks up and sits down silently beside him.
He looks up and smiles at her.
“I got off early from work today. Do you want to do something?”
Both of them know her answer.
“You’re always the one taking me to new places every day. How about today, I’ll take you to someplace special?”
“Will you now. But you don’t get to drive.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
She jumps up. Looks around for his car. Runs to it. He follows her.
“Where is this?” He asks.
They are standing on the rooftop of a building – one of the many that fill the area. It was a commercial section of the city.
“This is where I used to visit earlier when I had my coaching classes. My classes were on the first floor of the building. I would come up here to watch the cars.”
He walks to the edge of the roof. There isn’t a parapet to keep him from falling. He looks around. She’s sitting by the flight of stairs leading to the roof. He joins her.
“I don’t usually bring people here.”
“Aah, I’m honored. Are we here to watch the sun go down?”
“You should be. Yes, we are here to watch the sun go down.”
“Then why are we sitting with our backs to it?”
“That is because it’s still hours to sunset, dum-dum.”
“Oh.”
They sit with their backs to the afternoon sun. The sun slips down. They talk. She leans on his shoulder. The sun slips further down in the sky.
Sunset turns into twilight. They don’t notice. They talk.
“Are we here just to watch the sun go down?”
“No… We’re here because… I don’t know why. We’re just here.”
*****