Remembrance

Remembrance
By Armando de la Torre

For a moment she forgot where she was and she felt an absolute tranquility.
Somewhere above in the sky the sun shone brightly while clouds moved
majestically. The strong wind waved her long and blond hair when she started
remembering.

She had lived her childhood in opulence, protected by the love of her
parents, nevertheless , her condition had made her live full of hardships. She had
lapses of overwhelming euphoria interleaved by periods of postration and extreme
sadness. As a teenager she came into contact with drugs and alcohol, which had
done nothing but exacerbate her condition. She tried to commit suicide. She had
been seconds away from death, saved only by the quick intervention of her parents.
Those had been tough times, which were only worsened by the time she aged
eighteen, that year her father died in a car accident. Her life turned into a dreamy
mixture of events ; the euphoria of parties and night clubs combined in a grotesque
mode with her confinement in asylums and rehabilitation clinics. She was lost.

Then, he arrived… and her life changed forever. Her depressive sadness
became nothing but a distant memory. She closed her eyes as she flooded her mind
with the memory of him. She evoked the sensation of their naked bodies, their skin
covered with sweat droplets as they moved frantically. She opened her eyes. The
wind had taken gale force, clouds started to move quickly as in a maelstrom. She
left her mind be carried away by the overwhelming force her memories.

The wedding had been a happy event, profanely stained by the recent death
of her mother. Her husband’s lost had taken the form of a cancer which consumed
her completely a couple of months before her union. During the long agony the
specter of depression had once more closed her talons upon her. But he had always
been there, at her side, providing her his unconditional support during that
otherwise unbearable period.

The following years had been a long honey moon. Thanks to the money from
her parents they traveled at will around the world. She remembered how the last
night they had indulged in the old vices of her teenage times. It had been a night of
overwhelming pleasure. She suddenly felt dizzy. She opened her eyes and saw the
world spinning frantically … something was … wrong ? The images invaded her
mind with vertiginous speed… the alcoholic drinks, the poppers, the sexual extasis,
the hours of endless sex, the noon wakening, the masculine figure blurred behind
the curtains , the beautiful sea vista as she stepped out to greet him , her
bewilderment as she saw the cold ruthless of the stranger’s face, the sudden panic
followed by the blunt shove.

Realization hit her as a lightning just before she crashed with the sharp
rocks. The fucking bastard was going to inherit all her money.