Short Story - The Quirky Old Couple

Here is my second short story inspired by the song Little Talks from Of Monsters and Men.  I always imagine a quirky elderly couple puttering around the house as they grow old together but know that their time is coming soon, hence the "ship that will carry them safe to shore".  This song gives me the feeling of a bitter-sweet ending that leaves me with a feeling of slight sadness even though the song itself sounds upbeat and happy.  So, I wrote the story along those lines.  I hope you enjoy it.  It is a little lighter than the previous story and I really enjoyed writing this one!  The lyrics and video are posted below for reference.

                                                              "Little Talks"

Hey! Hey! Hey!
I don't like walking around this old and empty house
So hold my hand, I'll walk with you, my dear
 The stairs creak as you sleep, it's keeping me awake
It's the house telling you to close your eyes

And some days I can't even dress myself
It's killing me to see you this way

'Cause though the truth may vary
This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore

Hey! Hey! Hey!

There's an old voice in my head that's holding me back
Well tell her that I miss our little talks
Soon it will be over and buried with our past
We used to play outside when we were young
And full of life and full of love.

 Some days I don't know if I am wrong or right
Your mind is playing tricks on you, my dear

'Cause though the truth may vary
This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore

Hey!
Don't listen to a word I say
Hey!
The screams all sound the same
Hey!

Though the truth may vary
This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore

You're gone, gone, gone away
I watched you disappear
All that's left is the ghost of you.
Now we're torn, torn, torn apart,
There's nothing we can do
Just let me go we'll meet again soon
Now wait, wait, wait for me
Please hang around
I'll see you when I fall asleep

Hey!
Don't listen to a word I say
Hey!
The screams all sound the same
Hey!
Though the truth may vary
This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore

Don't listen to a word I say
Hey!
The screams all sound the same
Hey!

Though the truth may vary
This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore

Though the truth may vary
This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore

Though the truth may vary
This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore

***

Dem could hear the wood floorboards creaking above him as he sat in his chair by the window sipping his morning tea.  She’s up, he thought with a heavy sigh.  It would only be moments now until the chaos started as it did every morning since she started losing her mind.  Dem’s wife, Aby, was victim to what most magical beings like them were cursed with as they aged – magical amnesia.  Her magic was becoming uncontrollable as she forgot how to use it and this made her emotions heightened.  

He slowly got up from his chair by the window, his knees aching terribly.  He wasn’t untouched by the effects of aging either, though he didn’t share the same burden as Aby.  The creaking stopped as he walked into the little kitchen, which was just big enough to fit one person at a time, and he heard instead Aby’s footsteps descending the old steps from the upstairs.

“Dem?!” Aby called loudly.  Aby’s voice carried a long way.  It was the kind of voice that you could pick out in a crowd of people, and one of the reasons Dem fell in love with her centuries ago.  

Her feet padded loudly down each step of their tiny cottage in the woods, Dem turning to face her knowing from the amount of steps that she would be walking toward him now.  “Morning dear,” Dem said politely.  “How did you sleep?”

Dem already knew the answer because it was the same every morning now.  But he entertained her all the same because she was still the woman he loved, just a bit crazier.  “Terrible, Dem,” Aby replied waving one hand in the air as if trying to swat a fly, “just terrible.  The house creaked all night long.  I couldn’t catch one solid wink of sleep.  Not one!”  She walked passed Dem into the kitchen and grabbed a flower pot holding one yellow daisy that Dem had picked the day before, pouring it into a mug not realizing that it was now full of dirt and not tea.  Dem watched without surprise as she lifted the cup, taking a sip.  Unfazed by the contents, Aby smiled contently, a dirt mustache above her upper lip.  “Now that’s some good tea,” she said, satisfied.  

Amused, despite his better judgment, Dem laughed on the inside.  He knew it wasn’t funny, not really.  Aby could go at any time now.  The facts were laid out blatantly by her actions.  Yet, he couldn’t help but adore her behavior, finding it endearing.  It reminded him of the fun times they had together when they first met.  Aby had the best sense of humor, always cracking jokes at the most inappropriate times, though Dem never felt offended.  On the contrary, he found great joy in her tactless approach.  It was refreshing.  

So really, Dem thought, I am only reacting the same way she would if the roles were reversed.

“Aby, dear, I’ve made some breakfast and then I thought we could go for a morning walk along the water,” Dem said.  He waved his right hand over the small circular table positioned between the kitchen and the sitting room that composed the lower level of their cottage.  At the motion of his hand, two egg and sausage omelets appeared.  Aby’s eyes widened with joy and she inhaled the scent, her stomach grumbling hungrily.  Dem pulled a chair out for her and then took his seat beside her.

“I had the most peculiar dream last night,” Aby speculated, chewing loudly.

“Hmmm,” Dem responded with a raised eyebrow, his own mouth full of food.  He didn’t find it at all curious that she had a dream to share even though she just said she couldn’t sleep a wink.  This was a factor of her amnesia that he had become familiar with.

“Yes,” Aby continued on as she chewed, “I was walking on the moon, looking down on the world.  Everyone looked so small, like little ants crawling around looking for food.”  She gestured animatedly with her hands as she spoke, making Dem slightly nervous. “I was giggling uncontrollably because I was running out of air up in the sky, you know.”

“That is very interesting, dear.”

“But that’s not the best part,” Aby continued, her voice near shouting now.  “Just when I was about to pass out from a laughing fit, a shooting star flew by, right passed my head, and crashed into the earth.  

And the world was filled with a glowing white light.”  As she said this last part, her hand shot into the air to demonstrate the shooting star, and Dem recoiled expectantly as the floor above their heads broke apart and the bathroom sink came crashing down to settle in the middle of their sitting room.

Dem was prepared though.  This sort of thing happened nearly every day.  He lunged forward and pulled Aby out of the way just in time. The dust from the crash filled the air around them and Aby coughed theatrically.  “Good heavens, Dem.  This house is falling apart.”  Dem didn’t answer but helped her to her feet.  With a simple movement of his hands, the sink rose from the ground, back up through the hole in the ceiling to the second level; the wood panels fitting awkwardly back into place.  

I’m not as skilled as I used to be, he thought darkly, looking up at the now crooked ceiling.

“C’mon Aby, let’s go for a walk,” Dem said, ignoring his growing concern for his wife as well as himself.  His magic was deteriorating at a faster rate these days.  It wouldn’t be long before he was in the same state as Aby.  He hoped this didn’t happen anytime soon.  Then they would be two crazy old people walking around blindly and destroying their house one magical misstep at a time.

The air outside was cool and refreshing, the sun breaking over the horizon behind dispersing clouds.  Hand in hand, Aby and Dem walked toward the water which led out to a wide ocean.  This is what they had done for years – as long as they had lived here.  The tiny cottage in between the ocean and the woods was their home and now that nobody came around anymore, they had the privacy they needed to grow old.  “Do you remember the day the dolphins came, Aby?”

Aby didn’t answer for a while, her face contorting in strange ways as she fought hard to retrieve a memory.  Sometimes the memory didn’t come.  That made Dem sad because each time she lost a memory she was that much closer to being gone forever.  To his relief, a smile spread across Aby’s face and she spoke thoughtfully, a glimmer of the young woman he fell in love with breaking through the surface.  “That day was magical,” she stated simply.  “We flew through the ocean on their backs and they took us deep underneath to their underwater kingdom.  We grew fins of our own that day.”

Dem chuckled softly.  “Yes, love.  That’s exactly what happened.”  While this wasn’t entirely true, he didn’t have the heart to break her dreams.  They did in fact ride on the backs of dolphins - for hours in fact - but they did not grow fins.  The underwater kingdom was a coral reef that the dolphins liked to gather at.  While it was no less magical than she recounted it, these were not the events as they happened.

“I miss them, Dem,” Aby said softly.  “They never returned for us, did they?”

“No, dear,” Dem replied, squeezing her hand gently.  That is what made that day so peculiar and dream-like.  It only happened once.  A pod of dolphins beckoned to them from the water on a warm summer day, making leaps and bounds out of the water, getting as close to the shore as they could without beaching themselves.  It was like the dolphins wanted them to jump in and join them, so they did.  After that, it was a blur of excitement as they were swept away through the water with a determined swiftness.  Dem was still unsure what that day meant, but he had a gut feeling there was deeper meaning to the beautiful animals reaching out to them; a greater force showing them what life was meant to be.

From the corner of his eye, Dem saw a distant shadow in the water.  He turned to look with heaviness in his heart because he already knew what it was.  The time was drawing near afterall.  It would be on its way now.  Sure enough, a ship with golden sails glided peacefully over the still ocean, miles away, but unmistakably headed in their direction.  “Aby,” Dem started, not sure what words he was looking for.  Before he could say more though, Aby broke away suddenly and ran toward the woods, screaming.  Not screaming in the usual sense though.  It was a sing-song sort of screaming.  Dem watched for a moment as she disappeared behind the trees, dumbfounded, before taking off after her.

When he finally caught up to her, Aby had run a good mile into the woods, well past their cottage.  She had stopped beside a tree, breathing heavily and singing to herself in a quiet voice.  The woods they left behind them were now stained with deep shades of blue and purple, like someone had come and splattered paint all over them.  Dem knew she sensed the ship’s approach and panicked momentarily, causing the discoloration of the trees.  He knelt beside her and stroked her hair.  She looked to be in a different place now, her eyes unfocused as she huddled on the ground.  That moment by the water a few moments ago was probably the last glimpse of Aby he would see.  She was slipping away.  The magic has become too much for her to handle. 

“Let’s get you back inside,” Dem said lovingly, helping a shaking Aby to her feet.  The cottage lights were visible through the trees.  He nearly carried her back to their little home that had always felt so warm but would soon be a lingering memory of their past.

Back in the cottage, Dem helped Aby into her bed upstairs and tucked her safely under the covers.  She still hummed softly as she slept.  Dem settled in the chair beside her bed and looked out the window, not wanting to leave her side.  The sails were getting bigger on the horizon.  It’s moving too fast, he thought.  His mind drifted back in time remembering all the great moments they had shared.  He wouldn’t trade any of it, he knew.  She made him a better man.  He would miss her more than anything.

Dem’s eyes felt heavy so he let them close not intending to fall asleep.  He woke that evening to a gentle knock on the door.  It can’t be, he thought, jumping up from his chair.  He first looked at Aby, still sleeping peacefully in her bed, then out the window.  To his shock the ship was perched on the shore just feet from their home.  He ran down the stairs, turning the corner quickly to see it for himself.

Four cloaked figures stood on his doorstep.  “Not yet,” he pleaded, falling to his knees.  “Please don’t take her from me yet.”  He thought he had more time with her.

One cloaked figure stepped forward and spoke kindly.  “Her time has come, Dem,” the woman said.  She carried a sympathetic tone in her voice.  “You know the rules.  We will give you a moment to say goodbye.”    She rested her hand on his shoulder and he felt slightly at peace for that moment.  He stood and returned upstairs to where Aby rested.

“Aby dear,” he said, kneeling beside her.  “The ship has come to take you.”  His voice shook as he spoke.  Though he knew he would see her again someday, it was hard to let go in this moment.

Aby’s eyes opened at the sound of his voice and she smiled when she focused in on him.  “I love you 

Dem,” she said with no sign of the amnesia in her now.  “I’ve always loved you.  You know that?”

Dem wasn’t sure if he laughed or cried as a response.  “Of course, dear.  As do I, and always will.”  He leaned down and kissed her on the lips, lingering for a few moments, salty tears running down his cheeks.  

“It is time,” a voice spoke behind him.  Dem looked up and saw the four figures waiting in the bedroom.  He was unsure who or what was underneath the cloaks, only that he would find out when it was his turn.  Giving Aby’s hand one more squeeze, he watched with a heavy heart as they lifted her onto their shoulder and carried her from her bed.  He followed them down the stairs and to the front door, his eyes never leaving Aby.

“You must stop here,” the woman said to him when they reached the doorstep.  Dem began to shake as the tears poured out.  “Do not worry, Dem,” she said to him as the others took Aby down the sand and lifted her on to the ship.  “You will see her again when you fall asleep tonight.”  He was confused by this statement.  Surely it wasn’t his time to go so soon.  He was nowhere near the state of Aby.  He figured he still had a few years to live on this earth.  But though he couldn’t see her face under the cloak, the tone of the woman’s voice told him that she was smiling.  And with that, she turned to follow her companions onto the ship that would take Aby to her eternal home.

Once it was sailing back toward the horizon, Dem walked out to the edge of the water and watched until the ship’s sails faded away.  He was very sad, but no longer crying.  The woman’s words comforted him.  He would be with Aby again soon.  A sudden movement in the twilight pulled him from his thoughts.  Looking up, to his delight, he saw a small black figure dancing across the moon.  

Squinting hard he swore he saw a very familiar smile flash across the moon’s surface before a bright flash of light lit up the sky.  

He laughed out loud to himself, feeling slightly insane but in the best kind of way.  And with that, he gladly went back inside and straight upstairs where he tucked himself in, eager to fall asleep.  He understood the cloaked woman’s words now.  His time was much sooner than he thought and while he didn’t understand why, he wasn’t worried or afraid to fall asleep.  He wasn’t afraid of what was to come because as soon as sleep came he would be with Aby again - for all of eternity.  And that was all he ever wanted.

 ***