Blue Olympus
A plump raindrop smacked the back of my hand shaking me awake. I looked up into the corduroy sky and smiled. Each drop on my forehead washed me clean. I have been waiting for rain all day. I snuck out of the house at dawn tiptoeing around the Miller Lites and chicken bones. Avoiding the main roads, I walked to the long walk to the beach. I knew there would be hell to pay from Aunt Addie for skipping my chores but I’ve paid for my hell and she wasn’t my real aunt anyhow. I closed my eyes my face to the clouds. The rain pelted me. Its roar filled my ears, its coldness cocooned me.
Suddenly it stopped. I opened my eyes a slit. It was a man in long dark old fashioned coat holding an umbrella. The man was tall and thin and much too close to me. I jumped back and turned to run. Like lightning his bony hand flung out and caught me.
This man was death. I recognized him instantly. I froze and looked up at him with big wide eyes.
“Little girl, I didn’t mean to scare you. I wouldn’t hurt you for all the world, beautiful,” Death said. He held up his hands in mock surrender and crouched down on his long bony legs to be at my eye level. “I just wondered if you would like to share my umbrella.”
He was treating me like a sweet little girl because I was short and slight but I wasn’t a child and I had never been. I didn’t like that. He was treating me like a wild animal whose trust he hoped to gain. I liked that. I offered him my shy little girl smile.
“You’re all wet.” Death’s eyes trailed down my tee shirt and jeans down to my rundown sneakers. He gestured to his black umbrella smiling.
“Thank you no thank you,” I said.
Death’s smile faltered. He was pale as old bone. Then his smile bloomed again.
“It’s just that I have these brownies my meemaw made for me this morning. I’m new in town and I have no friends to share all these treats with.”
I shook my head no. I pretended to study my shoes but I was taking his face. He was man beautiful, high cheekbones, skin kissed skin, and a cascading mane of thick curly brown hair. He was handsome and he knew the power of it. The stranger put away the baggie of brownies in his big black coat. He unbuttoned his coat and fished in one of the inside pockets. That is when I noticed the camera, the blue camera, around his throat. Death offered me a lollipop sealed in plastic. I took it. Our fingers touched and he noticed me noticing his camera. Death’s eyes twinkled and he gave me his winner smile.
“This is Butterfly. It is a Blue Olympus Trip 35 with a Zuiko 40 mm lens. It’s the only thing I have from my mom. She loved butterflies. I know it’s silly to give a thing a name but—“
“It’s not silly to name something you I love,” I told him and reached for the camera and then pulled my hand away. I placed my hand in my back left pocket to hold Ruby the last thing my mom had given me. I put the candy in my right pocket.
“I know a place just up the beach. Its dry and I can take your picture. Would you like that my little beauty?” His long tapered fingers caresses the camera, dangling it in front of me. Biting my lip, I pretended to consider. I thought about how nice that camera would look in my room.
“I like butterflies,” I said.
I took Death’s hand with my right hand. I could see the white film drawn over his eyes. I could see the grinning skull under his beautiful tanned skin. I held Ruby in my left, feeling the weight of her sharp blade. I smiled up at the stranger and he smiled down at me. We walked down the shore hand in hand.