Breathe

18-year-old Douglass Kronwall rolled off his beach towel, stood up, and flung the cloth over his shoulder. He was currently on vacation with some friends in Florida for a week. They’d arrived in town on Tuesday and planned to leave next Wednesday morning.

“Ready to head in, Dougie,” teammate and best friend Love Zetterberg asked as he lifted his tan well-muscled body off the sandy floor. He stretched to get the kinks out of his sore physiques, showing off his abs in the process.

Love snickered and smacked his teammate’s abdominal muscles with a gentle hand.

“Keep showing those off and you’ll have scores of ladies surrounding you, buddy.”

Love stuck out his tongue and slapped Douglass’s hand away.

“Stop touching my only asset, you jerk!”

Douglass only rolled his eyes and yanked the towel further over his naked chest.

“Whatever, Love. That isn’t your only asset by the way. But, you keep on thinking that. That will get you everywhere.”

Love whacked his friend on the butt with his towel and slid the sunglasses off the top of his head to cover his eyes.

“I’m heading in. You coming?”

“In a few minutes, bud. I want to stay out a little more. Don’t worry, I’ve got my cell phone if you need to call me,” he added with a wink.

Love nodded and headed up the slope of the hill towards the hotel they were dwelling at.

Douglass let out a dramatic sigh and spun back around to glance over the water.

He’d always loved sunsets ever since his dad, retired Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall, had showed him his first one at the age of three years old.

He was fascinated by the colors shimmering through the trees or how they floated across the water like a nighttime rainbow.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it,” a voice that sounded like heaven asked from beside him.

The startled boy jumped about a foot in the air and turned to his left to be met by a divine vision.

The girl was wearing a white cover-up that floated around her like fog. Underneath it, Douglass could see a glimpse of a pink, white and yellow bikini. Around her neck was a golden chain that looked like it had the figure of an angel attached to it. Her hair was a ring of blond curls that gusted in the wind like a curtain. Her eyes were a stormy shade of gray, but Douglass could sense the sadness circling in them.

“Yes, it is beautiful. I’ve always liked sunsets,” he confessed.

The girl’s small pink lips twitched into a wispy smile.

“So do I. Sunsets will always remind me of innocence and childhood,” she whispered back, as if they were sharing a secret only they could know about.

Douglass cocked his head to look at her. He wasn’t so much confused by her statement as he was curious.

“What do you mean?”

The girl stepped closer and brushed her fingertips over his fingers, causing a tingle to run up his spine.

“Look at the way the colors glisten over the water.”

Douglass did as she commanded and the gasp that escaped his lips was unstoppable.

The yellow, pink, and orange beams on the water were still and would always be one of the prettiest things Douglass laid his eyes on. He didn’t know why, but it was like magic to him, in a way.

“Beautiful, isn’t it? And in a few minutes, it all goes away. The magic goes away. Just like our childhood,” the girl continued.

The noise that entered out of Douglass’s mouth was horrid. Now he understood what the girl was trying to say.

The sunset—childhood—was magical, beautiful, and generally the best time in a person’s life. Then, in an instant, it can go away for good, much like the sunset does. He’d never thought about it that way before.

“What’s your name,” he dared to ask, tilting his head over at the beautiful girl.

The girl’s eyes turned from the sad, stormy ones he’d been gazing into just minutes before to bright, sunny, and stunning.

“My name, dear one, is Angel.”