For a week Mary had been restless and irritable. She had snapped at anyone and everyone who had come in contact with her. She blamed it on the unusually hot muggy weather. She had not slept through on entire night for over a week due to the heat and she was becoming almost intolerable to even herself. She knew she could not withstand the insufferable heat much longer.
She was on edge and the one person who put her even more on edge was Chris Larabee. Just the sight of him made her want to walk up to him and slap his face as hard as she could.
It was bad enough that she saw him during the day but he also invaded her nights as well. He invaded her dreams constantly. She spent most of the night tossing and turning on top of her bed trying to find the coolest and most comfortable position possible. The only way sleep would come was when sheer exhaustion left her body no alternative. Then the dreams would begin. When she woke in the morning she felt irritable as if she had been deprived of something.
Mary knew Chris had done nothing to warrant her behavior in fact he had been especially attentive to her since the heat wave had begun. He came at least once a day to ask if she would like a cool drink from the restaurant and one evening had even asked her if she would like to ride out to the nearby creek to put her feet in the cool waters and sit in the shade. His polite inquiries had been met with stony stares and clipped sentences of refusal.
He irritated her and she did not know why. Maybe it was the way he always looked so cool, even when dressed in black, and composed when she felt so hot and disheveled. Or maybe it was that he always seemed so calm and sure of himself when she felt harried and unsure. Whatever it was Mary knew that it was getting harder and harder to not slap his face when he appeared in the doorway.
On the seventh day of the heat wave Mary walked slowly home. She usually did not stay so late at the Clarion but she had not made it to the office that day until almost ten so had stayed late to make up the time. She'd had trouble that morning convincing herself to come in at all. She did not want to face another hot muggy day and the inevitable meeting with Chris.
Mary glanced up at the sky and was surprised to find what looked like a thunderhead forming in the sky. She hoped it would fully mature and bring with it cooling showers of rain to wash the dusty streets and winds to blow away the hot muggy air.
It was nearly ten o'clock when she got home and opened the door to find the air suffocating and humid. She went form room to room opening windows. When she got to her bedroom she opened the window and immediately began undressing. She shed her dress and peeled the undergarments from her sweaty body. She let her hair down, braided it loosely and then let it hang down her back. She slipped on her nightgown. The sleeveless nightgown was quite sheer, and light. It almost felt like she was wearing nothing at all. She then walked back to the kitchen and found a cloth and wet it in the water she poured from a pitcher on the counter. She then ran the cloth between her breasts and then down her arms and around her neck. It momentarily helped soothe her hot irritated skin. Mary was to tired to eat so she made her way back to the bedroom and lay on top of the bedcovers and waited for sleep. Sleep was not long in coming and neither were her dreams.
In her dreams Chris was ignoring her, talking and flirting with every woman in sight. But then in another dream he was beside her in bed holding her, kissing her, caressing her, telling her he loved her. Why couldn't he make up his mind? What did he want? She awoke sweaty and dazed. Her nightgown was tangled in her legs and stuck to her breasts and belly with sweat. She swiped a hand across her forehead, untangled her legs, and got out of bed and pulled the damp nightgown away from her body . She walked to the open window and saw that the thunderhead had grown to storm size and that a slight breeze had begun to blow. Even though the wind was still warm the breeze was a relief. The house was still suffocating so she walked to the door and stepped outside .
She didn't even stop to think that she only had on her nightgown. She stood facing the ever stronger wind. As she did the nightgown became taunt across her bosom, belly and thighs while billowing behind her loose and free. It was slowly blowing the heat and perspiration from her body. As she looked upon the night fires in the street she watched the shadows dance on the buildings and boardwalk. Then she noticed that one of the shadows was moving toward her.
It was Chris Larabee. He walked across the street and up the porch steps and stopped within inches of her. She was speechless and could not look anywhere but into his eyes. He ran his hands lightly up her bare arms. It made her arms tingle. And then without a word he bent and kissed her all the while pushing her backward toward the wall. When the wall of the house stopped her he placed each hand on either side of her head, continued kissing her and pressed his body into hers, pinning her to the wall.
The storm was now producing the first real gusts of wind and with it drops of rain. As the wind begin to blow the rain onto the porch, Chris picked up Mary and went into the house kicking the door shut with his foot.
Outside the storm raged. The elements sparred with each other getting louder and stronger with each assault, building to a ever nearing climax. Black clouds rammed into each other, thunder rolled, the wind whipped the trees into a frenzied dance, and the rain fell faster and faster until a great bolt of lightening split the air and a few minutes of calm reigned. This sequence repeated itself several times into the stormy night.
The next morning Mary awoke to find Chris gone and a note laying on the nightstand that he would see her later at the Clarion. She got up and noticed the water on the floor in front of the open bedroom window and went to fetch a cloth to wipe it up. She then noticed she had to mop up water in front of all the windows. She hummed as she went about her task. Nothing could irritate her this morning. The air was cool, the dust settled, and she no longer felt irritable and edgy. The weather had changed.
The End
