Thinned flip flops did their best to protect my feet, but to no avail. Gravel crunched under my weight. Each stone pressed into my heels leaving its imprint for a second.

As I walked onwards I gazed up. The charcoal above my head felt warm while the air swirled around my sunburned body.

Up ahead, the only visual aid were street lamps, beyond only the moon provided light. The moon had been tucked behind a black cloud, but it now showed it’s face. It was full tonight.

Against the obsidian of space, it seemed to be made of liquid silver. Light grey craters coated its surface and a few formed a face. “Mr. Moon, how do you do?”

I had reached pavement and could sense the heat gathered in the ground seep it’s way into the soles of my feet. As I neared the top of the hill I quickened my pace.

I summited the hill, and there she lay, tossing and turning. Lapping against the sand, swirling beneath Mr. Moon, sounding her call to me.

I ran. To her I went with great gusto while I still could.

I flung myself down the stairs that began at the top of the hill. I flung myself so powerfully that my flipflops lay forgotten somewhere unbeknownst to me.

She was here. She was everywhere, and Mr. Moon was reflected in my eyes. From the foot of the stairs rocks lay strewn about the sand. As I tiptoed across the wet stones, each one reflected Mr. Moon.

Sand beneath my feet now; smooth and dark grey. Each step hardened the wet grains beneath it.

I ran. To her I went with great gusto while I still could.

I approached them not at all timidly; no fear. She and Mr. Moon pulled me into their world. She enticed me forward and I forgot the earth. Mr. Moon directed my gaze toward him.

She swirled about my hips now while Mr. Moon kissed my face. Surrounded. Eyes closed. Arms outstretched.

Forwards I continued.

She became a mirror of the black above and her dark, velvet pools pools filled under my arms and entwined themselves around around my chest.

With a shiver I allowed myself to be lowered down. My last sight: Mr. Moon. I thought my chest would burst, I loved them so much, I’m sure my smile lit up those silky black depths.

I loved them so much that my love threatened to burst forth out of my body because my body was no longer large enough to contain that love.

I loved their world. I loved it like a mother loves a child and vice versa. Or perhaps I loved it like a lover can’t seem to get close enough to their partner, yet they keep trying for ultimate intimacy.

But I truly loved it like one loves life, with great gusto while I still could.