EroticReverie

Lela...Twelve years later.......

I lay a wild flower from the field he held me in atop his gravestone, as I have every year on the anniversary of his death. 

The day Marcus dropped me off. Riots errupted across the country. Men. Women. Millions of protests, thousands of deaths. FFA buildings were burned in the middle of the night. Every single one.  Over the next several months, thousands more. People on the right side of history, and the wrong side, both dying for their own causes. There was chaos everywhere. Women not even under the FFA , were being raped by men on the streets, killed. Made an example of. There was civil unrest every day. Everyday the news pushed and urged the people to halt protests. Warned us of deadly action and force by the enforcers. The enforcers who were dying and injured in unbelievable numbers. 

Marcus had died that first night of it all. Shot by an enforcer. Only once. But a deadly wound, straight to the heart. 

A year after the day Marcus had smiled at me for the last time, the FFA laws were banished. 

I sit in the grass beside his grave and look at his name carved into the stone, the years of his birth, and his death. Too close. Too short. 

I lay on the grass, my head near the stone. My fingers running over the blades of grass beside it, lifting my head and my hand. My hand touching the stone as I press my lips to it. Not caring about the dust of the dirt upon it. 

I wipe my lips and lay my head back down. 

"You did it." I speak to him. "You took me away from it all." 

Because of Marcus, and others like him, women in this country, no longer had to live in fear of turning eighteen. Their bodies no longer government property. Even though several people are still trying to pass the bills and law back into motion. There were powers in numbers, and while it hadnt felt like it at the time, there were far more good people than bad people. The people in power, the people who agreed with them, it wasnt enough to outnumber those that chose to stand for women. 

"I miss you." I say softly. "I wish you were here to see how it's changed...all because of you." 

I never thought I'd love anyone the way I fell in love with Marcus in such a short time. 

"He's good to me. Like you were." I say softly to the stone as my fiance stands across the way, on the side of the road that winds through the cemetary.

"We're moving to London, so I wont be able to come visit you." I say as I shut my eyes. 

"but youll visit me, right?" I ask him as the wind blows around me, over me and the grass tickles my bare legs and my sundress moves in waves over my thighs. 

"you'll still visit me in my dreams, won't you?" I ask. Every now and then, I dream of him. Of those moments we shared, how I barely knew him, but had fallen in love not even knowing how. 

"Visit me in the field....and hold me?" I ask, my voice cracking, tears filling my eyes. 

"I love you." I sniff. "thank you for being there...thank you for holding me....thank you for saving me.....I wish I could have done the same for you." 

"I love you." I repeat as I sit up and lay my head atop the curved stone and weep quietly. 

"Wait for me." I whisper. " Be there when i'm done living the life you gave me by saving me. Please wait for me." I cry. My shoulders shaking, tears spilling as I close my eyes and picture us in that field, under that tree. 

The wind picks up and I cry harder, a warm breeze blowing my hair into my face and my dress fluttering around me. 

"I love you too" I answer him, because the wind always blows against me, warmer, harder when I'm here. As if he's there with me, listening, watching, answering me with wind as warm as his lips had been upon mine. 

When I stand, I stare down at his grave, placing my hand ontop of it. 

"I'll see you soon." I say softly, hoping to dream of him soon. 

I bend down, placing one more kiss atop his gravestone and then turn away, walking towards my fiance, his hands tucked into his pockets, his face somber, and sympathetic as I walk across the grass. I turn back, giving him the same smile I did twelve years ago, when I thought i'd see him again the next day. 

Heath's arms wrap around me, and I let myself fall into him. We'd met a few months after the riots and protests began and I'd joined him, and others in the marches. Heath was responsible for lighting half a dozen of the FFA building on fire in our area with a group of what they called "Rebels" at the time and still do. Heath was good and he didnt let Marcus or any of the others that lost their lives to give me mine, die in vain. 

Heath and his sister, let myself and several other ffa's with no  place to go, stay in their house. Eventually we became closer, we travelled to rallies and protests across the country, and we still travel together now. Spreading the story, the horrors, reminding people what not to go back to. To fight for themselves, for each other. 

My father was killed a few months after I met Heath. He denies having anything to do with it. But I know it's a secret he'll take with him to the grave, just to spare me. We both know it was him. And we both know my father deserved it. 

I dont talk to my mother. She hasnt tried to contact me, and I have no desire to contact her. My sister lives in Canada with her girlfriend, and their seven dogs. I talk to her every other week, checking in with her, her checking in with me. 

Heath kisses the top of my head. 

"He's be so proud of you." he whispers and my eyes fill with more tears. 

Heath understood what Marcus meant to me, even only knowing him for such a short time. But he knew what it meant for someone like Marcus to care for me, even when I felt unworthy because of how dirty I'd felt. 

I nod against his chest.

"Are you ready to go?" He asks softly in my hair and I nod.

He opens my door and I get in. I watch him walk over to the gravestone, and cry as I watch him place his hand on the stone and his lips move. It's brief. Then Heath is walking back to the car and getting in. 

"What did you say to him?" I ask. 

"That i'd take you anywhere you want to go , that I was taking you away from here , for him." he says and I reach over, grabbing his hand. He leans in, our foreheads touching. 

"I promised him that I'd take care of you." he says. I nod, tears falling down my cheeks. 

"That I was going to marry you, and was honored to share your heart with him." 

I cry harder. My eyes lifting to Heath's.

He lifts a hand to my cheek and I close my eyes. 

"Let me take you away for him , love" he whispers and I nod. I wipe my tears as I turn to look at gravestone. The wild flower somehow still sitting atop it even with the breeze.

And I smile. 

                                                            -The End -