Remedy Z: Solo (36 page)

A new day dawned as did a new relationship. Jen had stayed on the couch over the prior few nights. That night I slept there too, by the fire and holding her in my arms. I slept so well that it felt like one moment we were there in the firelight and the next the fire had gone out and blinds came up, automatically with our power, and the beams of daylight illuminated our little world.   

I looked over at Jen, who still slept and marvelled at her loveliness. After a while, I could hear my stomach groaning and decided I would prepare breakfast. I tried to get up and her arm touched my naked shoulder. “Stay,” she said sleepily. I got back in under the covers and snuggled with her a while. She liked being held and I was happy to oblige and be close to her. “You’re beautiful,” I whispered, kissing her cheek. She didn’t say a word, she didn’t have to: bliss was pervasive.

I wondered if that was paradise, a fool’s or otherwise. At that moment in time, I was fulfilled and content and I hoped it would last forever. Nothing is forever and life, while persistent, is as fragile as are hearts and love, as I would find again. 

“I have the warm embrace and all I need, right here with her. For now that is all that matters,” I thought. 

What was outside my little paradise wouldn’t wait. That unnatural world, and the virus that had engulfed it, was coming for me. But for that brief moment, I was happy and no longer alone, solo no more, triumphant.

THE END