Featured Image: “Couple watching the sunset” by Michael Seeley (CC BY 2.0)займ 6000 по паспорту
My wife strikes a match to light the candles. It flares, flickers, then dies. I hear her nervous laugh, the same sweet giggling snort she gave when I summoned the courage to ask her to the movies.
A second match flares, illuminating her face. Youthful excitement, undiminished by age, sparkles in her eyes. I remember running for the bus in the pouring rain, her laughter as it drove away, and that first kiss.
She touches the flame to the candle’s wick and the rising golden glow shows me the truth. A glisten track of tears runs down her pale cheek. She sees me watching and forces a smile. I do not smile back, and hers falters.
My wife turns away, dabbing her eyes with a napkin before she takes her seat. We look across the table at each other. She has chosen a meat dish, with a blood-red wine.
This is my blood.
My plate contains two small paper cups, blue for starters, red for mains, and my usual bottle of juice with its adapted spout. What harm would red wine do now?
My wife picks at a bread roll.
This is my body.
Except it’s not. Not any more.
Drinking a second glass of wine, she talks about our wedding day and how my dad fell asleep during the speeches.
Then she comes to my side and, as she has so often during the last few years, gives me my medication.
First the blue cup.
Outside, the sun is setting. She sits on the edge of my chair, her head on mine as we watch the sky burn red.
She gives me the contents of the red cup. Tears streak her face.
My eyes close.
I feel her lips on mine as I run through the rain.
Adam Baxter writes under the pseudonym Ash Hartwell. Born in Maine, Adam lives in Northamptonshire with his wife and muse, Nicki. His first novel, Tip of the Iceberg, published by Stitched Smile in 2017, won Best Horror Novel on Critters(.)Org. His second novel, A Cursed Bloodline, should be available from Terror Tract in the Autumn. He has recently completed his Masters in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.
He is still very much alive and therefore not yet famous. His books are available via Amazon.
You can find out more about him and his work here.
This creative piece was submitted as part of our August and September theme: FREEDOM. If you would like to submit your own creative work to aAh! Magazine, please email aAh.Editor@gmail.com, and be sure to check our latest “Letter from the Editors” to find out next month’s theme.
Featured image: Megan Levick November marked the 10th anniversary of Rupi Kaur’s seminal debut collection and the international phenomenon Milk and Honey, accredited as one of the highest-selling poetry books of the 21st century. Originally self-published by Kaur as a 21-year-old student, and then by Andrew McMeel, Milk and Honey quickly gained popularity on Instagram and…
By Immy Burgess and Cheri Dermott As part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Festival at Manchester Met, poet and PhD Caroline Stancer shares her advice for young activists and poets, thoughts on how art can be a response to societal issues and be a form of activism and what the campaign…
By Immy Burgess “Why do we know that one in three women experience violence, but we don’t know how many men perpetrate violence?” asks award-winning poet Kim Moore, framing the urgent need for societal introspection ahead of her discussion with Professor Khatidja Chantler as part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign….
By Immy Burgess and Lowri SimmonsFeatured image and gallery: Molly Goble Manchester Metropolitan University’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Festival launched this week with a powerful opening event featuring feminist activist and Everyday Sexism founder Laura Bates alongside Forward Prize-winning poet Dr Kim Moore. Hosted by Dr Malika Booker, poet, multidisciplinary artist, and senior lecturer at…
Leave a reply