Sweet Embrace

She stood in the middle of the forest, looking up at the gray sky, while the trees swayed lazily from the wind.  Her white dress rippled and folded around her body like a gentle mist; hovering over her toes which were buried in fallen leaves and crumbled dirt.  Her raven hair swayed in the direction of the wind, covering her ocean-blue eyes which were still gazing at the dark clouds soaring across the land towards her.
         Her thoughts returned to reality when a cold hand touched her bare shoulder, causing her to inhale a short breath.
         It was him, of course; who else would it be? 
         He smiled warmly, looking in her eyes.  “Do you remember?”
         She cracked a small grin.  “I do.” She embraced him.  “I remember.”
         He inhaled against her neck.  “Strawberries,” he said.  “Just like you always used to wear.”
         “Your favorite.” She kissed him softly, and felt the first raindrops hit her nose and cheeks, and eventually her whole body.
         He looked at her face, seeing the droplets trace down her eyelids, nose, lips, and chin.  He kissed her in each place; especially her lips.  She eagerly accepted, motioning the movements of her mouth with his.  He took his time feeling their texture, their smoothness and taste.  He kissed her in the rain for what seemed like hours—and the hours seemed to last for days.
         He pulled back, and it was her turn to look at his face.  Rain passed through his body like smoke; his features were unaffected by the colliding waters.  Still he smiled, and said “Do you remember.”
         She took his frozen hand in hers, their fingers intertwined.  “I remember.” She kissed him again.
         Above them the rain poured like a waterfall, and lightning lit up the sky like the flicker of a towering lantern in the night. 
         He let go of her, his smile faded.  “Don’t forget me.”
         Her tears mimicked the rain as they cascaded down her cheeks.  “Please,” she begged.  “Don’t leave me again.  Please.”
         “Same time next year, my love.” And he was gone.  Like a magician after a smoke trick, he evaporated.
         She fell to her knees in the sticky mud, burying her hands in the ground, pounding away at it.  His words reentered her head and repeated over and over again: “Do you remember? Do you remember?”
         “YES!” she screamed at the roaring sky; her mud-soaked hands stretched upward as if in praise.  “I remember!  I remember!”
         She buried her face against the mud, and the rain continued to drop on her like missiles from an overhead aircraft; her dress stuck to her pale body like loose flesh, and she cried. 
         A few paces away from her, a stone protruded from the ground, not far from a tree that was split in half from the highest branch to the base.  The split was caused from a lighting strike.  The stone read: John Devers a Loving Husband and Honorable Man.  There was no date.
          She remembered it well.  How could she forget?  She thought it over again and again in her head.  She looked up at the sky; mud covered one half of her face and it slid down her check like jelly.  Her only lover was forever gone, except for a small moment every year.  How could she forget? 
         Do you remember?
         She wiped her face with her muddy hand and closed her eyes.
         “Yes,” she whispered.  “I remember.”