Love and Magick, A Short Story Double Feature Read Online Free PDF

down. You'll have to come back later."
    I was exasperated. Is the entire world
having computer problems? The expression on the attendants face
told me she wasn't going to do anything else to help me. I guess I
hadn't acted like concerned family. Then, the phone rang and I
might as well have disappeared.
    The leather seats in my car were hot to the
touch. I engaged the ignition. I would find her.
    Heisler Park was always beautiful. And there
were always crowds. I watched the Eighty-Nine bus come and go half
a dozen times and she was never on it, but when she appeared out of
the crowd in front of me I can't say I was surprised. Not really.
But I was relieved.
    "How did you find me?" She smiled and her
green eyes looked even brighter.
    "I think you found me."
    Her arms slinked around my neck and mine
around her waist. The weight of her body pressed against me and for
that instant I felt totally and utterly whole, my life fulfilled.
There was nothing I wanted more than to hold her. She was alive.
And I had her, at least for now in this finite and perfect moment.
I pressed her close and felt a sudden shock of sadness at the image
of a world without her.
    "Come here. I want to show you something."
Her fingers were inside mine again and she pulled me to the beach.
We took off our shoes and walked through the sand. "Come on."
    I followed without protest.
    "I found this. Isn't it wonderful?"
    A sea of black ovals over a smooth, wet slab
glistened in the sunlight. It was a cluster of mussels covering a
rock in a blanket of shells. I smiled.
    That day was long, but all too soon it came
to an end. I parked the car in front of the hospital and the
question came to me. Why did the hospital give her leave? I turned
to her and opened my mouth, but before the words could be uttered,
her lips found mine. I forgot about the question. I didn't care
about anything but this moment, this touch with her.
    "I want to see you again," I said, my breath
coming short. “I have to see you, Jasmine, I have to.”
    "Meet me, on Monday, at the beach. Not
here." Her breath was hot on my lips.
    We kissed again and longer.
    The freeways were empty and the yellow glow
from the city lights hovered like a thick fog.
    How could I keep this going? She was sick.
She was going to die. This could only end one way.
    I shuttered at the thought of it, but even
still, when my better judgment endeavored to instruct me most
thoroughly, I remembered her touch, the press of her lips and her
unequivocally beautiful spirit that, like a thief, had stolen me. I
was in love. I could no more turn from the current path I stumbled
down, than I could redirect the setting of the sun.
    This can only end one way. She is sick. She
is dying...
    But if she was, then so was I. I would walk
this path and follow it to the bitter end and use the Blue Moon
Monday all the while.
    For six weeks following I used the Blue Moon
Monday just as I had the first time. And each time the coincidence
occurred. And each time I met her at the exact same place. And each
night we made gentle and passionate love. Monday was our day, our
sacred day. I never asked to meet any other time, I was just happy
to be with her when I could. And for those weeks I almost believed
that it would go on forever. Until the eighth week, the last
week.
    ***
    "You okay? You've been coughing more
lately."
    "I'm fine." She heaved for breath.
    I was silent. The sound of her coughing
filled the gap. She heaved again and gripped the bed sheets as she
gulped for air. I sat beside her and touched her back. I felt her
muscles tighten as the convulsions took her. She covered her mouth,
but when the next bout came, flecks of blood stained the white
linens and smeared under her fingertips.
    A cold shiver shot down my back.
    What have I done? What am I doing? She's
sick!
    I glanced around the hotel room and spotted
a small cup near the sink. I filled it and shoved it into her hand.
"Drink it."
    Her cough quelled. I choked back my