Last Sunset by J. Morris (animal farm read TXT) 📕

as she remembered, but it was
Steven: her man. He offered his hand. She took it and stood to face him.
She didn’t resist nor care about any onlookers as Steven slipped her dress
over her head and laid it on the sand like a blanket. She removed her
underwear, and they lay down face to face. For the next hour and a half,
they explored one another’s bodies, made love, searched their partner’s eyes
and saw their souls. They realised the fragility of life and accepted the
reality of death.
The sudden clanging of church bells all over town filled the air. Steven
discreetly glanced at his wristwatch. It was 5:55. They stood and, still
naked, walked to the water’s edge and let the cool salt water swirl the sand
around their feet. They stood side by side and surveyed the horizon just as
Adam and Eve might have, but Steven and Kate were at the point of
extinction, not creation. The Sun’s rays created a path of light on the water
from horizon to shore, to the spot where they stood, and the ocean glitter
twinkled on the calm sea. The atmosphere was as the calm just before a
storm. Kate put her arm around Steven’s waist, and he instinctively put his
arm around her shoulder and drew her to his side.
In a last show of defiance from a doomed species, car horns joined in with
the church bells, and fireworks exploded in the late afternoon sky. On the
beach, a circle of strangers joined hands and sang ‘Auld Lang Syne’.
“Hold me, Steven,” said Kate, and they turned to each other. Kate rested her
head on Steven’s shoulder, her back to the setting sun.
“Hold me tighter. Don’t let me go,” she said.
Steven wrapped both arms around her and squeezed her body against his,
feeling her soft breasts press against his bare skin.
“Remember when we were first married, Steven? You used to sing an old
Alice Cooper song to me.”
“I remember,” he replied.
“Sing it to me.”
He stared into the shimmering orange surface of the Sun, which was almost
resting on the horizon. The blood vessels in his vision resembled road
maps. Goliath’s gravitational pull caused the sea to undulate, heralding the
silent assassin’s unseen approach. The tide suddenly retreated from the
shore, the seas churned, and the waves rose higher and higher into the air,
higher than Steven had ever thought possible. He rested his cheek on the
side of Kate’s head, and she closed her eyes. Kate held him as tightly as she
could, and they swayed together in a slow dance. Steven sang, almost in a
whisper.

“Sometimes when you’re asleep
And I’m just staring at the ceiling,
I want to reach out and touch you,
But you just go on dreaming.
If I could take you to heaven,
That would make my day complete.
You and me ain’t no super stars.
What we are is what we are.
We share a bed,
Some popcorn,
And TV.
And that’s enough for a working man.
What I am is what I am..
And I tell you, babe,
You’re enough for me.”

Goliath appeared from the right, streaking across the sky at a phenomenal
speed toward the Sun. The Sun’s rays illuminated the front face of the
object, giving it the appearance of a giant headlight. At the moment of
impact, the explosion’s intense flash burned Steven’s retinas, instantly
blinding him. The following blast of heat fused Steven’s and Kate’s naked
bodies together in a final moment of unity, and a moment later, the
fragments of Earth drifted through space like dust in the wind as a
remorseless Goliath continued on in search of a worthy opponent.

Imprint

Publication Date: 01-13-2022

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