826 hosted a dinner in celebration of our newest college scholarship winners, Jennifer Yu, Kevin Feeney, and Melissa Ortiz, last Wednesday night. All are talented young writers who will be chronicling their first year in college on our website. To provide just a taste of their talents, the following is a short story written by Jennifer.
“Sunset”
The bright orange sun beat down on the slow moving silhouettes. Obscured by the glistening rays, sand blew up from the ground engulfing the two figures that stood in the distance.
“Hey, man, can I get a drink from the reserves? My mouth’s burning up here,” said Theo as he forced himself to go on, each step sinking further into the sand, kicking up balls of dust.
“T, not now, I told you already, it has to last us. It has to last us,” Max finally managed to murmur as he spat towards the sun. His spit fell to the ground collecting grains of sand before it quickly seeped beneath the surface.
“But, Max, aren’t you thirsty too? Come on now, I know you are. How ’bout just a sip?” Theo was beginning to beg.
“Darn it, T, I told you already. No. Now give me the darn GPS system.”
“Fine!” Theo scoffed as he shoved the heavy black equipment at Max.
It was three days since either of them had seen civilization or food for that matter. Their hunger was beginning to take over. Neither of the men was thinking straight. Theo was young, eager, and oblivious. He was recently called from his family ten thousand miles away to accompany Max on this expedition. From his wife, newborn baby girl, and everything else that was ever familiar to him.
Max and Theo were scheduled to meet the rest of their party earlier that day at a base camp secluded in the middle of the desert. Before reaching Morocco, they stopped off at the local United States embassy in Spain, and then later crossed over to Africa.
“Hey, Max?” asked Theo as he stumbled over his own feet, tripping onto the hot sand.
“Yea, T?”
“Do you remember the States still? I mean really remember it? It’s been so long,” Theo asked as he adjusted the ropes and cords that began to fall from around his shoulder.
“Why the heck would you ask something like that? Of course I remember it,” Max turned around to look at Theo. Theo was strong; his features on his face were well defined. Max could still make out where Theo’s cheekbones met his eyes. When he smiled you could see all his laugh lines and wrinkles, but they quickly faded away unlike those he himself had acquired with age. Theo was young. Max remembered the days when he was young—his bubbling bride, the kicks he would get out of completing a mission, the celebration with his family afterwards. Now, the danger, the loneliness, the exhaustion, was all a part of his life. He lied to Theo; he could barely remember what the smell of his own house smelt like or the expression on his wife and childrens’ faces when they greeted him after his long awaited return.
Not wanting to describe the States, Max changed the subject. “It’s getting late now, probably about eighteen hundred hours? Let’s walk a little more, then we can set up camp.”
“Can’t we set up camp now? We’ve been walking for hours. We were supposed to meet at headquarters a day ago. What the heck happened? Huh, Max, what the heck happened?” Theo was angry. Angry that he had not eaten in days, that he was utterly exhausted by the sun and heat, and not to mention homesick.
“No, keep walking,” Max was stern as he tried to work the GPS system. He explained to Theo nearly ten times already that the system wouldn’t work because of a sand storm coming in from the east.
“I’m still thirsty as heck. Quit walking so darn fast, Max!” Theo began to trudge along slower than ever.
“Sorry,” Max slowed as Theo hustled over towards the side of Max.
Max enjoyed being on missions; the freedom it held gave no worries, only a starting point and a destination. Everything in between those two points was a place for him to get away. It was the only life he really knew, the only life he wanted to know. He could do nothing other than idle around after each mission, waiting for his next adventure.
The two men sat on what seemed like endless white sand beaches, but without the cool breeze or the soothing sound of the salty waves clawing at the shore. Instead, the hot muggy air pulled at their bodies to lie atop of the warm sand highlighted by the shining moon.
“Theo, do you see the stars?” This was the first time Max had ever made an effort to talk.
“Yea, I’ve never seen them so bright before; it’s amazing!” Theo was absolutely breathless. Both men lay under the light of the sky. Staring into the stars, Theo spoke to Max, “Tell me about your family.”
“My family?” There was silence between the two men. “My family, what about them?”
“Don’t you miss them?” Theo twisted his head up off the ground towards Max. Max looked tired and exhausted, yet he had somewhat of a happy expression laced over his face; he looked as if he was enjoying being out in the middle of nowhere. Lost.
“No, not really,” Max paused for a moment. He began to say something, but quickly stopped as if to take back his words.
“Why not? I miss my woman like heck! And my baby, oh gosh, my little girl. She’s going to be all grown up by the time I get back home!” Theo clutched an old weathered and torn photo of his wife and daughter.
“Is that them?” Max said as he pointed at Theo’s hand. Theo sat up towards Max.
“Yea, that’s them. Aren’t they beautiful?” Theo held the photo towards the fire so Max could see. “I keep them with me everywhere I go. Do you have a picture of your family? I’d sure like to see ‘em.”
Max reached over to grab his pack and dug deep into the front pocket. Finally he pulled out a little piece of paper that was taped across the middle where it had been torn. “That’s them. That one’s Rose, my wife; boy, is she a beauty. Those two there are my little girls, Amanda and Hannah, and that’s my boy, Shawn. Man, is he strong. He’s getting closer to becoming a man every day.” Max seemed distant when he talked about his family. “I think I’m going to crash. Here’s the reserves, go ahead and eat up. We’ve got a long day ahead of us. You want get back to your family, don’t you?”
“But, Max, I wanna hear more ’bout your family.” Theo thought that Max might actually be opening up to him, but he was only answered by the sound of Max’s light breath as he lay there sleeping.
The men awoke early the next morning with the sun. The warm rays blanketed them from their surroundings. Max was no longer lonely. He enjoyed Theo’s company as he lay besides him. Knowing that someone was near was comforting and he was saddened by the thought that soon, Theo would be gone.
“Hey, T, you awake? The sand storm finally cleared up. Let’s get a move on it,” said Max as he began to get together his belongings.
“Sure thing, man.” A wide smile came across Theo’s face.
At around sundown, they finally made it to their camp. Max was worn out and took a nap as soon as they had checked in at headquarters.
Theo woke up to the sound of an unfamiliar man’s voice, “What took ya guys so long? You were scheduled to be here two days ago!”
“Max said there was some sandstorm and he couldn’t get the GPS system to work, so we wandered around hoping to find headquarters,” Theo said half-awake, half-asleep.
“Ha! You must be kidding me! What sandstorm? It’s been clear out for the past week.”
“What?” Theo was confused. “Where’s Max?”
“Oh, you mean your partner? He left about twenty minutes ago. He found himself another mission.”
“Huh? We were suppose to head off to the Canary Islands today.”
“Well, you’re dismissed. You can go back home to your folks,” said the man, who appeared to be a guard of some sort, as he flipped through some papers.
“What about Max? He’s got family too, can’t he be dismissed?”
“Your partner,” the guard paused for a moment as if to remember something from the back of his head. “Max, yea, he doesn’t have any family, at least that I know of. What family he did have, was murdered in a plane crash about five years ago. Poor fella.”
“That can’t be, it hasta have been a different Max ’cause he showed me pictures of his family yesterday.”
“Two girls and a boy, right?”
“Yea,” Theo was confused. Max just showed him pictures before they went to bed.
Happy to be returning home, Theo headed out towards a small pilot plane that was fueled up and ready to take off for Spain. There, he would jet back to the States. As he got into the plane he saw Max walking off towards the horizon. There was nothing there except the sand beneath him and the sunset in front of him. He was alone, walking down his own path.
