Buenos Días

It was in the early morning, just before the sunrise. He was standing out on the shore because he couldn't sleep. The waves rolled incessantly inward, emerging faithfully from the wall of infinite blackness that blanketed the horizon. It was her, in his dreams again, for the third night since they'd arrived in this beach town.

When they bought their bikes, cheap 250cc Hondas that were older than he was, Jim had jokingly said that you never forget your first bike, or your first love; he was right. All of their travels had brought them here; it was heaven. Aptly named, too: Cielo. Now, standing in the quiet predawn, it seemed the crashing waves whispered wet secrets to him - the dew of truth hung from his ears like diamonds. Was this just an attempt to forget? To get away? The people, the places, the potions and passions - all of it - was it just a grand escape? He tried to confront himself, using the sea as a mirror, but all he could see was rolling emptiness.

Waking gulls exercised their throats and cried out against the silence with their long, lonely caws. A thin sliver of red appeared over the water, like a squinting eye on fire, and then softened into a pink disc. The colors ran streaming across the sky, painting it pink and orange and light blue. Waves became paler and then translucent, less and less opaque. On the sand behind him, an old man pushed a cart full of ice, wheeling it across the beach to setup for the day. Buenos días, said the man warmly. Sí, buenos días señor, he replied.

Somehow the day seemed more bearable now that the sun was rising. The sun is always rising, he thought, even when it seems to be setting. It is easy to forget this when the dark hides the horizon, wrapping itself around it until there is nothing but blindfolded desperation.

He was hungry, now.

He'd go wake her up, and Jim, too. Tell her he had to go, that they'd be back. When, he wasn't sure, but he'd give her his bracelet as collateral. Then, they'd ride off toward the next town, toward the next beach and bar and pretty girl, chasing leisure, hunting happiness.