before and after fff#9

bigup sweet trini for flash fictioning our friday. and i must say i doubt i'm the only one interested in reading more erotica from you  so if erotic starters are what you need then goddammit use erotic starters!

i pretty much let this piece write itself. i think i may even like it.

all that was left was/were...

all that was left were memories. i remembered giving up football for music and putting down music for more visual arts; painting and photography which, after school, proved to be my only profitable skill. i think i can remember every bride's face, but not one name. 

i remembered the call from the editor that led to my job in the city and my first thousand assignments being in the living section; newly wed and engaged couples. why we couldn't just let them send us pictures like every other newspaper was beyond my comprehension. i remembered how it was her who got me my first real assignment, and how my photo made the front page the very next morning.  i remembered our first date and me waiting for her to meet her deadline. i remembered the sight of her running to me. i remembered the feel of her crawling in next to me. i remembered her promotion to investigative journalism meant my promotion to investigative journalism after she fought for me. i remembered our months of great sex and investigation before blowing the mayor's procurement scandal wide open. 

i remembered the threats that came to the office that week, the faces of the men who showed up at my door the next and thinking how thankful i was that she was working late; will they get to her anyway? had they already? questions still unanswered. i remembered being pulled out of the trunk over the river and realising their intent, lunging at the closest one so they would finish me fast before they threw me over; anything to avoid drowning (my greatest fear). i remembered the feel of the lead as it went through my chest, the weightlessness as they threw me from the bridge and the impact of the water like a wall when i hit, just before everything went black... and nearly immediately back to light.

i lay here now with all these memories and this story to tell, but without the motor skills to express them. those memories will fade with time and i will have forgotten them completely long before i even utter my 'first' word. a lifetime of memories cast aside for a new lifetime. looking back there was a lot more good than there was bad.