Sun’s Out

A day at the beach, but given the contest and title, it involves the sun somehow...

“All you do is lie on this beach and suntan,” Marshal, my best friend since kindergarten, said as he rubbed sunscreen on his arms. “And you never use sunscreen anymore.”

True, but also irrelevant. My back had burned two days ago and still hurt, but I planned to get as much out of the sun as possible. Besides, I had just purchased this purple polka-dot bikini, less than a week ago, and I needed to get as much use as possible out of it.

He used my sunscreen, the expensive kind, that protects, heals, moisturizes, and removes years. Marshal needed to shave. He needed to work out more, read more, spend more time with me, and stop using my stuff.

“Your mom’s worried about you,” Sarah, his wife, said as she rummaged in the cooler for a diet pop. They made a cute couple. Perfect for each other. I wished I had found someone, but I spent too many hours in the lab.

I lifted onto my elbows and glanced out of the corner of my eye at the sun. My focus of study for the past ten years. I knew more about it than anyone on the planet. Hazy, high clouds helped soften the rays. Also known as smog. An eagle soared so high up that it only looked like a speck, while the massive airliner shone and glinted in the distance.

“Sarah thinks you're dying, like only a month to live,” Marshal said and threw the sunscreen at me. He missed, and some of the white stuff landed on my left leg. I left it there, even though it bothered me that he wasted it. So inconsiderate.

I played with a bottle cap that I found in the sand. Older style. With sharper edges. It had a small k within a circle. It will outlast me.

Sarah, with a diet pop in hand, said, “I did not. I said I thought you were depressed.”

No, she likely thought I had some sickness, disease to explain not going to work for the past three days. I have spent most of those days on the beach or staring at the TV. I haven’t slept more than a few minutes since Tuesday.

Gary, the one whom I wanted to turn into the one, gestured for Sarah to throw him a pop and said, “Did you hear that global warming, or climate change, might be reversing, or something? Like this news story said that the sun’s heat has dropped, or something.” All looks and very little brain; why we would never work.

“I heard that,” Sarah said as I pushed the bottle cap deep into the sand, closed my eyes and rested my head on the towel. Sand pressed into my cheek, salt air soothed my soul, while sea birds and crows cast shadows over my sore, burnt back. They didn’t know. No one knew. Except for a couple of us.

Gary said, “Well, they’ve set up a solar farm too near my place. All shiny reflections and I hear you can get cancer from all that sun. Why do they call it a farm?” I almost said something about how solar farms do not increase the amount of sun, but Marshal jumped in for me.

“Stupid, the solar farms gather the sun’s light and generate electricity, to you know, save the environment and all.”

“Cool, they shouldn’t put it in the field though. I used to walk Charlie back there.”

Typical. All about themselves. So focused on their little problems, inconveniences, that they missed the bigger picture.

I thought about rolling over, getting a more even tan, but I didn’t care enough to move. Everything felt too heavy to move. Sure, the sand tickled and scratched my stomach as I breathed, but I couldn’t be bothered to wipe that off.

A kid shouted in the distance while BBQ meat, pork by the scent, wafted over the beach. The trio continued to talk while sweat rolled down the side of my chest. Depressed. Maybe. Ok, definitely, but for good reason.

More, because I haven’t told them. My best friends. They deserved to know. But I promised to wait for the official announcement.

“Ice cream, I want ice cream,” Marshal said. Always hungry. Mom used to complain that he ate her out of house and home, but secretly she loved that he loved her cooking and ate so much, because Dad and I ate so little.

“Chocolate Fudge, I’ll pay,” I mumbled, barely audible over the waves, and the music, and the birds, but Marshal and Gary heard.

Gary said, “Orange sherbet for me.” He dripped cold water on my back, which caused me to stiffen up and hit him, but also to smile. He always made me smile. Stupid stuff, like that. The reason I wanted him as something more than friends, but I knew it would never work. “Oh, and make sure they don’t put any artificial dyes in it. I heard they’re bad for you,” he said as he sipped from his can of pop. Yeah, a bit clueless.

As Marshal stood, he said, “I’m gonna get the most expensive sundie.” And he would, because lifelong friends do stupid stuff like that, and he would take my credit card and then secretly pay with his own.

“Sarah, make sure he uses my card,” I said as I threw sand at Gary. And she would.

They took my card while Gary convinced me to take the frisbee down to the ocean and play.

“Are you dying like Sarah thinks?” Gary asked as he dove at my poor throw. Water splashed. Somehow, his landing angle soaked me.

“No, but our world is.”

I caught his perfect pass. He could do anything physical. Fast runner. Good baseball player. Anything he saw, he could do.

“Yeah, global warming, yadda yadda yadda,” he said as he again managed to splash me as I caught my decent pass.

“No cooling.”

“Pretty sure it’s warming.”

I didn’t argue, because I had decided to tell them, all together, over ice cream.

Gary made me smile as we played. He joked and laughed, and at that moment, I decided I didn’t need brains. I needed someone to make me smile, to make me laugh. I decided that I would make Gary the one, for as long as we had.

And I told him that. And he kissed me. And the world felt alright for a little bit.

Ice cream arrived, and Gary, in typical Gary fashion, told them about the kiss, about us dating. Marshal and Sarah smiled. We enjoyed our ice cream as Sarah and Marshal talked about dinner to celebrate us finally getting together.

I didn’t want to. But I couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“Hey, everyone, I have something to tell you.”

Gary had that expression- happy, concerned, one eye half closed, mouth lopsided, like a confused puppy dog.

“You’re dying, or shit, is it cancer, is that why you kissed me?” Gary said, his hand on my shoulders. Marshal leaned on his knees, angry, ready to fight me, while tears welled up in Sarah’s eyes.

“I’m fine, other than a sunburn, and yeah, it’s kinda why we kissed, but no, I’m not dying, and no, you can’t fight it. It’s our sun,” I said before Marshal interrupted me with a hug. Sarah joined, while Gary’s fingers pressed against my cheeks. I so wanted to kiss Gary and just pretend I wanted to make a bad joke, but Sarah’s tears, Marshal's warm arms, and Gary’s expression made me push through, to blurt it out.

“Something is covering our sun. We think it’s aliens solar farming, or some strange rock formation, even though that makes no sense.”

Sarah laughed. Marshal grinned. Gary kissed me.

“I’m serious. We have about two more days before it gets noticeable, then who knows how long until everything on Earth dies.”

Marshal laughed. Sarah cried. Gary tried to kiss me, but I pulled away.

The kids played around us. An old couple argued about their grandchildren; one wanted to visit their newest for Christmas, while the other wanted to visit their oldest. A seagull attacked the remaining banana on Marshal’s banana split. Waves crashed. Hamburgers and hot dogs joined the pork smells.

“Are you serious?” Sarah and Marshal asked together, while Gary finally got his kiss.

Soft lips. So little time.