Birthday Wishes

June 15, 2011 By: Christopher D. Eldridge Category: Flash Fiction, Love

After a couple of long, exhaustive guides, I wanted to post up a creative piece that’s short and fun. So for today’s post, I have for you a short story I wrote as a gift for my wife’s birthday, which means it also happens to be romantic. And who doesn’t need a little more romance in their life?

Birthday Wishes

You were there at a time when the mind needed to forget, when the body needed release, when the soul needed mending.

You looked at me with those eyes of darkness, those eyes of light, open and hidden all at once. You didn’t know then what you know now, but you were waiting for so much more. You wore a smile, and your voice held warmth, but there was anger in your touch, anger in your eyes. Though shaped by a force not entirely of your own, powerful and unwavering, you were still clay waiting to be shaped into something else, something more beautiful, more unique, more your own.

You were youth: alluring and innocent, full of burgeoning hopes and dreams and a rage not yet tamed. You were a dreamer afraid to dream, afraid to let go the cares of a cold, unforgiving world. Such weight threatened to crush your spirit, your very life. You never dreamed another might take the burden for you and help to share the load. Such release would allow your indomitable spirit to break free.

You were there at a time when the mind needed to forget, when the body needed release, when the soul needed mending.

You were the salve upon my skin, the elixir of life, the jolting shake to awake me from a dream. You were the softness in my gaze, the warmth in my breath, the ecstasy in my caress. You were my sky waiting to open its theater, where dreams and lofty hopes were whispered into your visage. You were my world, a playground of endless adventure, a gathering place reminiscent of childhood—limitless imagination, boundless freedom, unconditional acceptance. You were my ocean, swallowing me in your vastness, in your endless caress of warmth and suffocation, of power and unnerving intoxication.

I became helpless against the will of a power greater than all of existence. But what power! How with a simple touch it molds and shapes the most beautiful of things, mending, healing, fixing. And yet with the greatest of ease it crushes and demolishes everything in its path, leaving nothing but desolation in its wake. It is this power we invoke, I upon you and you upon me.

You were there at a time when the mind needed to forget, when the body needed release, when the soul needed mending.

Much has changed since chance or fate brought two desperate creatures together, desperately longing for something better. It was our beginning, our genesis. How fitting then to celebrate such a beginning on the eve of yours. But where do such celebrations owe their origin? Why do we give gifts, fire, and praise? Are such beginnings rooted in ancient magic, in a celebration of the spirit or of the gods? Our ancestors of the West— even those before the Golden Age—believed in such things. Birth is magical. How can one deny that creation is anything less?

Can you remember that first moment when you closed your eyes, your wish floating on air, just before your breath quenched the flames? You are not alone. Those before you did the same, but their fires burned for gods, for the workings of spells, or for the guardian whose watchful eye helps keep you safe. This day is magic for reasons perhaps long forgotten or for reasons perhaps very dear to your heart. But remember the genesis of all that has brought you here, of all that watches over you, and in that moment you wish upon a dying flame, forget not the flame that still burns bright, as some flames can never burn out.

 

 

1 Comments to “Birthday Wishes”


  1. Great birthday present! Your words are bright with clarity and love. You’re a rare couple–you make marriage make sense.
    Thanks for sharing what’s in your heart.

    1


Leave a Reply

  • To Main Website

  • Contact

  • Visitors

  • My Story as a Visual Representation

  • My World