wonders

prompt: ...So write a story or poem about the Seven Wonders of the World that are human-made, but from disciplines other than architecture.
word count: 422

***

Finally.

She could feel her heart seize, her chest tighten, constricted like it was being squeezed with a heavy, iron fist. Her eyes took in the sight, knowing they should look away sometime, but completely unwilling to do so. Someone spoke to her off in the distance, but his voice was muddled static, her concern on nothing else but the scene in front of her. She felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes and she hurriedly blinked them away. She has already cried too much. A small smile donned her weary face.

Her eyes locked onto that deep cobalt, twinkling from the light above, surrounded by a soft golden-brown shimmer and topped with a mop of sandy waves. Deep creases etched into the gold and the planes tensed and hardened into a more compact and dense portion, all leading to the soft bundle that made her heart swell.

Her exhaustion finally overcame her and the tears slipped yet again. She had never cried from happiness before, had never experienced a joy so overwhelming it reduced her to such. A quiet sob escaped her lips and that deep cobalt turned to confront her directly.

A pearly white appeared from underneath the light pink that adorned that gold frame and the cobalt moved closer until it was just in front of her and she felt the soft bundle in her own arms. The bundle was light, but grew heavy from a weight that could only be felt by its creator, one that was not physical, not tangible, but existed from the effort and work that went in to its construction. She rocked her arms, moving the bundle back and forth as she appraised the object in front of her, ruddy, uneven, and wrapped in a stark white. A slightly rough, golden plank stroked the side of her face, sweeping her matted hair from her forehead.

She placed her lips against that soft, red object in her arms, breathing in deeply to inhale a smell so unique in its perfection it was almost cruel. And everything was so warm and perfect and even the hum of the florescent lights overhead brought comfort and peace. Then the cobalt and gold and pink drew closer to her until the pink rested against her lips. She breathed in again, this smell not quite perfect, but beautiful all the same.

She closed her eyes, wanting to somehow capture the moment deep into her memory, for she knew that as long as she lived she would never again see something so wonderful.