Shadow of Yesterday

The sun rained fire and there was no sign of clouds in the sky. The corn field danced with the wind and added to the beauty of the farm. The day was hot enough to make the birds flee for shelter yet it couldn't stop little Sofia and Eleanora from playing in the open. The heat didn't seem to bother them at all. They ran around in circles with their ragdolls. The corn was ripe for the harvest but old Bruno knew that the yield, like the next several harvests, would go into repayment of the debts he owed. He sat on his porch with his sickle and tried to gather enough strength to get up.

Old Bruno was sure that one of these days his back would betray him. He saw his girls run around recklessly and feared for their safety. He called out to them but they didn't care to respond.

"Camila! Come out!" he called out to his older daughter to come out of the house. A beautiful teenage girl came running out on her father's voice.

"Get them inside. They're gonna hurt themselves!" Bruno said and stood up to step into the fields.

Camila obeyed her father and set out after her sisters. She could see the movement in the field near the scarecrow. Ironically, most of the straws of the scarecrow had found new homes in crow nests around the field. Bruno pledged to repair it every time he saw it but always ended up leaving it for later. The miserable scarecrow, like its owner, longed for a break that never came. Camila and the sisters on the other hand, didn't mind the company of the strawy abomination. Camila jogged toward the girls. She suddenly heard a faint rattling sound near her. Before she could respond, a rattlesnake pounced at her and dug its fangs deep into her shin.

Jessica jolted out of her sleep and abruptly sat up on her bed. She was drenched in sweat and out of breath. She felt like she had just run a mile. She instinctively checked on her leg and found it unscathed. The pain felt too real. It took her a while getting back to reality. The drinks she had the night before and the wild west movie afterwards were probably the reason behind such a bizarre dream. The clock said five in the morning but Adam was not in bed. He couldn't be out. The entire Bassett city was buried in snow and most of Adam's work took him out of Nebraska. Jessica got out of bed and peeked through the blinds. Sure enough, there were mounds of snow in the neighborhood. She walked downstairs and heard another western cowboy movie playing in the living room. She stepped in and found her husband staring at his drawing board as the TV played in the background. The room was dark and the lamp on Adam's drawing board was the only source of light other than the faint flickers of the TV. The cowboy in the movie barked insults and fired bullets while Adam stood there in a world of his own. It wasn't new for Jessica. Adam was known to stare at his designs for lengths of time before he spotted any flaw in them. The wooden beads on Jessica's shrug scraped the door and startled him out of his daydream. He looked at her and immediately understood what she had been through.

"That kind of night huh?" he asked as he paced to the kitchen to fix her something.

Jessica nodded and dropped herself on the couch. She scrolled through the channels. All the channels were showing the repeated shows from the previous day. She finally arrived at a news channel which was airing the weather updates. It was the only news she cared about at the moment. Adam returned with two mugs of hot chocolate. He handed the bigger mug to Jessica and she pecked him on the cheek in return. Adam joined her on the couch. A middle aged meteorologist arrived in front of the green screen weather map wearing overly formal attire. The guy did a good job dumbing down the forecasts. The weather in Nebraska was about to see better days. The temperature was about to rise and life would be back to normal. Jessica wasn't that passionate about her job to make her love the news but the days spent cooped up in the house were making her lose her mind.

"Finally! I can make that trip to Albuquerque. Wasn't sure it'd be possible when I promised it" Adam exclaimed and took a sip.

"What's in Albuquerque?" Jessica softly asked, her eyes still glued to the TV screen. Adam didn't mind her curiosity.

"Some billionaire's son wants to build a warehouse with offices on top of it. He wants the design to be tailor made for his business which I'm trying to talk him out of," Adam responded.

"Why's that?" Jessica inquired.

"I checked his record. The business won't float. The guy has the attention span of a fly. The building will end up becoming an eyesore in a fine block," Adam explained. Jessica liked his dedication but he often took his love for the craft too far. "But it's his money, his decision I guess," Adam added and shrugged. He took another sip.

"Any plans of your own?" Adam asked.

"Yeah. Shopping, loads of it," Jessica responded. She decided to tune back to the movie channel. They had watched the movie several times. She remembered every dialogue with accuracy. The couple assumed one character each and said the dialogues to one another. Such was the degree of boredom.

Adam stole a glance at his wife, who was staring at the TV, clearly lost in her own thoughts. Her shrug had slipped off one of her shoulders, revealing her almost translucent tank top. Her face was enough to make Adam unleash the beast inside of him but her figure left him out of control. He didn't even try to be clever or stealthy about it. He softly grabbed her by her arm and pulled her toward himself. Jessica didn't mind at all. They stared into each other's souls as if they were talking through their eyes. After a brief stare-down, their lips met. Adam's hand found the parts of her body that he loved the most and Jessica was tightly clinging onto his body. Minutes passed like seconds during that passionate kiss. Jessica was determined to elevate it to another level. She quickly slid out of her tank top leaving her upper body entirely bare. Adam seemed to have his passion dwindled as he saw her stripping down to move to the next step yet he continued to worship her body. His lips moved from her lips to her neck and kept on going downwards. She awaited the moment when he would take the initiative and strip her down further. She had her eyes closed as she longed to feel his hands on the lower part of her body. But Adam kissed her on the lips again and abruptly let her go. Jessica was beyond confused but then again, it wasn't the first time it had happened.

"If the weather gets better, I think we should go out for lunch today!" Adam suggested with a heartfelt smile and tossed her the tank top she had slithered out of.

Jessica let out a sigh and nodded in agreement. Adam had been bailing out of these intimate instances for a while now. She couldn't even remember the last time they had sex. She was going crazy for some action but all she was getting from him were high school kisses. She had told her coworkers about it and they had all suggested that he had lost his appetite for her but his passionate kisses could not have been just pretend. They were genuine. She wondered if she was going to need to tie him to the bed and take the wheel. If it kept on like this, she would keep that option on the table.

The day was going to be another one of the pointless ones where Adam would go over his projects for the future and Jessica would end up counting the tiles in the house. She hated herself for not making most of the bookstore sale last week. Her current TBR stash only lasted two days of the shut in. The colorless days were only bearable because the love of her life was by her side. They had met five years ago at a Christmas party. Adam had been a friend's cousin. They had developed feelings immediately. They shared numbers and kept on meeting each other. Jessica was from a catholic Mexican family that didn't often approve marriages outside the community let alone across borders. She couldn't remember much about her family or her childhood no matter how hard she tried. But Adam's folks on the other hand, would sleep with anything that moved. His family had every color of the rainbow, both racially and sexually. They already had an Indian, a Vietnamese and a Jamaican in the family so Jessica was just another color addition to the spectrum. There wasn't much time wasted on dates as they got married after only four dates. The only reason that had been possible was because Jessica wasn't on speaking terms with her parents. She barely remembered their faces and a part of her didn't want to remember them at all. From home to work, her life was just the way she had always wanted it to be. Adam had been on foreign visits at the time of their marriage. They had used it to their advantage and turned it into a working honeymoon. Jessica abandoned her rental residence in LA and Adam sold his apartment in New York.

They moved to a much larger house in Bassett, Nebraska and had been living there for four years. Both of them loved every second of it. There wasn't a thing that they would change. The neighbors were good. The town wasn't the most energetic and active, just the way the couple liked it. They had seen their share of bustling activity and city lights and noises. It was just the level of peace they had always longed for. The work treated them fine.

Adam's work had been a bit on the slower side ever since they had moved there. Jessica had gotten the hint when she casually ran through his files. He had seen some remarkable heights of his career yet he was limited to small time gigs and an occasional fluke every once in a while. As slow as it was, it was still to let the couple maintain a respectable standard of living. They didn't need to cut any hobbies or micromanage the groceries to fit the budget.

Jessica had found a well paying cashier job at the Red Stallion Bank. She was one of the youngest in the staff. She had found some friends there and she was well respected. The bank didn't see much activity in the regular days let alone on a snow day with blocked roads and slipping cars. The staff was given paid leaves until the weather calmed. She had been burrowed with her husband for four days and was dying to meet her friends again. She was sure that they were just as excited to share their stories. The snow was about to disappear and if all went well she would be back to work tomorrow.