City of Stars & Shadow | Two. Memories of Her

This is the second entry in City of Stars & Shadow. To read part one, Ara’s Date, click here.

June looked at Lucas and frowned.

“This place reminds you of her?” She asked. “Doesn’t it?”

Lucas nodded and smiled sadly. Ara was everywhere to him. She was in the soft summer rain, and the sun as it shone down on him, burning his shoulders.

“Every place reminds me of her,” he admitted.

“I get happy places and things. Those make sense.” His sister shook her head. “But here?”

Lucas looked around at the empty warehouse. He and his sister were touring potential places for the brewery they planned to open. The interior of the warehouse space was dusty and musty, and long forgotten.

He wished he could forget her.

There was sunshine streaming in through the windows that were set high up in the cinderblock walls. There were dust motes dancing in the sunbeams; they looked like fairies. The large rollup doors were open for their tour, and they let in the breeze, and with it the fragrant scent of the orange grove up the hill.

The gray steel of the doors was her eyes, and the streaks of paint peeling off the walls were her laughter. She was here.

She was everywhere.