A River Above and A River Below

'A river of stars.'

He pulled his scarf a little tighter. The damp from the grass seeping through his jeans helping the cold worm deep to his bones.

'I still remember the first night we saw it together. Out here by the river.' His chest bucked, a chuckle becoming a wheezing cough.

'You came bounding over and asked if you could share my 'scope. I couldn't find any words. This raven haired beauty with her tight jeans and those shoes. You don't go traipsing around the riverbank in kitten heels!'

The sun sunk deeper beneath the tree-line lending the air an ethereal amber glow. He raised the bottle to his lips, the cheap vodka giving off an acrid stink.

'All the blokes were meant to be watching the sky. Perfect night for it! Not a cloud in sight. But no. They couldn't take their eyes off you. When I found my voice and told you you didn't need a 'scope, not tonight. You didn't believe me. I thought Harry's eyes were going to fall out his head when I held your shoulders and told you just to look up. You rested your head back on my chest and stared where I pointed.'

His lighter sparked, flame wavering in the failing light. He took a long drag on the cigarette, exhaling a plume of cobalt smoke which hung, shifting only slightly in the still air.

'You were impatient, I told you to wait. Let your eyes get accustomed to the night sky. Then you saw it. That squeal you made. I fell in love with you then. You had never seen the Milky Way before. You didn't even know you could without a 'scope! I told you the Greeks called it the River of Stars. You said ever so softly "A river above and a river below." I lost my words again. Beautiful way to describe it. I think I started to shake a bit.'

He was trembling now. The sun, low behind the horizon hastening on night taking any pretence of warmth with it.

'You thought it was the cold and turned and told me to button up! It wasn't the cold though. It was you that made me tremble. I hadn't had much luck with the girls in my life and when you leant back on me my heart was pounding so hard in my chest I was worried you would feel it. Think I was a weirdo like the rest of them with their furtive little looks.'

His cigarette had burnt almost to nothing. He lit another from it, taking a small satisfaction in the heat that flared from its end.

'Harry laughed at me when I told him we were going on a date. "You gonna show her your milky way?" He said. I almost lamped him love. There and then but I didn't.' He sighed. 'We met in that little cafe. Can't remember the name of it. It's an optician's now.'

A tear rolled down his cheek, he wiped at it clumsily with the back of his hand. The vodka sloshing in the now largely empty bottle.

'And that was us love. We never looked back. Through thick and thin, thirty years. Thirty fucking years.'

Stars were becoming visible now. Pinpricks in the purple black ink of the sky.

'Thirty years.' His voice was a mumble now. 'You tell me it's over. It's been over for years. I begged you. Don't go. I love you. Please.' His voice cracked. A muffled sob echoed out over the soft murmur of the river.

'It was him, that fucking Harry. All that time.'

The cigarette slipped from his fingers to land beside the empty pill packets. A thin, blue-grey coil of smoke snaking into the sky from its glowing tip.

'A river above and a river below.'

The cigarette went out.