Encased by the light of a full moon, night descended upon the surrounding forest, blessing those nearby with a rich harmony between the capricious grasshoppers and the mighty coyotes. They thrived in that lonesome cabin towards the forest’s heart next to the rushing creek. Together, they ate what fruit the trees bore and hummed melodies with the morning birds while forgetting about the far-off plains, past their huckleberry garden, past their fishing hole, past the river and beach and Mt. Gummybear where there was civilization. Together, somehow, someway, they survived.
Chilly tendrils of the night winds laved at their cheeks when they made their way to that same grassy cliffside where they bathed in updraft, tiny working ants tickling their necks. The first time they sat on their soft grass patch, they had fallen asleep on each other’s hot limbs, the forest’s nightsong featuring acoustics from the steady drum of their heartbeats. And neither did rise until the following day when the sunkissed skyline bid them hello.
“Wait for me!”
He had always been a fast runner. Of the two boys who lived at the heart of the woods, he alone could cross the creek in a single bound and race the hawk to her prey. He had been blessed with long legs wrapped with lithe muscle while the other was short with ankles that twisted easily. But whatever the second was born with had been a fine trade-off, for he was better at swimming and had the power to visit the nearby miniature islands when he wanted an extra layer of solitude.
“Then run faster!”
And the two boys ran, one after the other. And they laughed and jeered at each other, trying to grapple at the other’s half naked body caked with dirt and sweat. And the follower lost his way after stepping on a pebble, his pained yowls drowned out by several orchestrated nocturnes from the trees above him. And he saw a flash of color to his side, those long russet curls glowing cold in the moonlight, and he felt at home once again.
When they inevitably found respite on their grass patch on the cliffside, they gave themselves a few pregnant moments to catch their raspy breaths. Leaning back on their arms, bouncing their sore legs, they slowly raised their eyes towards the stars above.
The galaxy is a bright place filled with faraway planets and icy rings. Like a tear in time itself, billions of twinkling stars congealed into a single winding path towards heaven with little glimmering veins reminding the boys of scar tissue. A bluish green comet shot across the sky, quickly dissolving into nothing. Together, the tried to recite the constellations.
“Over there is Old Man Fights Bear,” one of the boys said, pointing towards a specific pattern of stars. “And there’s Hungry Zombie… Wonder Woman’s Belt… Russian Butthole…”
Pressing their bodies flat on the earth, they turned their heads to each other and chuckled at their fabricated names. Wide, oily curls tousled with every twitch of his shoulders, even after he righted his gaze on the heavens. After a prolonged look, the other boy fixed his tired eyes on the sky as well.
The boy with russet hair licked his dry lips. “Hey… how long do you think we’ll keep living here?”
They looked at each other again, this time with knitted brows, thick with lack of maintenance. “I guess that depends… do you want to leave?”
The forest waited long for an answer. “... Not really.”
A cold wind blew against them, rattling the leaves and combing the dandelions behind them. “What made you ask? Something on your mind?”
“No, no, it’s just…” he sighed, stretching his arms above his head. “... I really like living with you and stuff… having the whole area to ourselves… and I was wondering if you thought the same.”
Ah, the other thought. He’s sad because I yelled at him for eating the rest of our fish storage.
“Yeah, I like you. I like living with you. Even if you are high maintenance sometimes.”
“Jeez, so are you!” He lightly punched the other boy’s arm, neither anticipating for it to hurt as much as it did. “And pfft, I like you too.”
Sincerity was hard to tell with that guy, especially when they first left home and never looked back. They were able to feed themselves fine using whatever survivor instinct they learned back in Boy Scouts, but shit, they were kids. They were teens, but still minors. The search parties didn’t know what to expect when they couldn’t find a single trail, and both knew they were probably being pictured as kidnapping victims with their school pictures on milk cartons and occasional talk show hosts weighing in on the issue with their concerned parents. Sincerity in him came in small bouts throughout the week, reserved only for times when he thought about his loved ones for too long.
But he truly was sincere, in this moment, right here. His friend smiled.
He turned abruptly, smacking his friend with his long hair. “But just how much do you like me?” he teased, his voice rising an octave. “How far would you go to save my life if I was being attacked by a bear?”
The other boy picked at the grass below his palm, plucking a few strands out from the Earth’s crust. “I would find some nice wildflowers to put on your grave after the funeral,” he replied.
“You wouldn’t try to save me?”
“You’re such a princess. Let’s be realistic.”
His friend huffed. “I would try to save you from drowning. Keyword: try.”
“Then we would both drown.”
“It’s the thought that counts right?”
“Not if we’re both dead.”
“Then we’ll both go to Heaven at the same time, right?”
Steady waves lapped at the bottom of the cliff. It was a near-40 foot drop from the tip and could only be used to help overcome the russet-haired boy’s fear of the ocean. Over the seven months span they have spent placid in the forest, little progress has been made. But the other was confident that even Olympic divers would be stunned at his own form he so carefully crafted. For him, this cliff was a pinnacle of sorts. This was as close to Heaven they could possibly get.
If he wasn’t agnostic, he would have told his friend, “Yes.” Instead, he opted for, “Do you think we’ll be able to find each other?”
His friend nodded, curls bouncing around his face. “Even if we were in another universe where we were separated, I would come find you. I promise.”
“Can you really promise that? You don’t know that.”
“But I do know. And I’ll find you, no matter what.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“But I would.” They interlaced their sweaty fingers together, running the pads of their thumbs over jagged nails stuffed with soil underneath. “I just… I have this feeling that no matter what, we’ll always come together. That means in other dimensions too, right?”
Their hot breaths mingled between them, tingling their clammy necks. They looked at each other with half-hooded eyes, their breathing steady and slow. Soon, the gentle rise and fall of the ocean would lull them to sleep. And still, his russet hair glowed in the moonlight, framing his square jaw and freckles the other boy loved so much.
“... I guess so…” he finally answered.
“Would you come looking for me too?”
“... If I could… yeah…”
And how they smiled at each other at the declaration. The wind continued to pick up around them, promising a chilly night. Above them, another comet shot across the Milky Way, transcending the billion year old sunbursts and disappearing into nothing.
They pecked their lips together the way they saw their parents do seven months ago.
“Thank you.”
