Perfection

By Lora Guy

As the sport bikes flitted in and out of traffic, every guy with a pulse froze, staring as the girls zipped by. The leader of the group turned down a side street toward the beach, the others following like ducklings. As her friends parked around her, she set the bike on its kick stand and swung herself off. With practised ease she pulled off her helmet, setting her long blond hair free, allowing it to tumble down the middle of her tanned back. She kicked off her shoes then reached down and stripped off a pair of lycra jogging shorts. Walking out onto the boardwalk in her bikini, she waited for her friends, feeling the approving looks from the passing men and women. As the last of the girls joined her, she casually strolled away, the posse following without a thought.

The sun was deliciously warm, the breeze comfortably wafting her mane. The boardwalk wasn't crowded; there were just enough admiring people moving about to make it feel like the right place to be at the right time. A group of deck chairs with a view of the ocean provided them with their destination. The five of them hadn't finished sitting down before a very eager-to-please young gentleman showed up to take their order. Margaritas all around.

She looked at the beach, the boardwalk, her friends, her little pink toe nails at the end of her long tanned legs. She gazed up at the azure sky and sighed; this is one of those perfect moments that you always dream of.

A pair of teen boys shyly approached the girls. "Excuse me ladies, would you mind if we had our picture taken with you?" Without any discussion, her friends joined her in draping themselves around the excited pair. As the waiter snapped a pic, a darkened window behind him caught her eye. Narcissism kicked in as she looked at her reflection... she just couldn't help it. The small hairs on the back of her neck stood up as her smile grew wider; giddiness fluttering in her stomach. After what seemed like a lifetime of fruitless wishing, it had finally come to be. She was young, she was pretty, and she was popular. But most importantly, she was a she.

The woman looked down at her frail grandfather as he slept. He looked like a such a pitiful collection of skin and bones in the middle of the hospital bed. She reached down and picked up the book that had slipped from his hands. It was one she had bought for him just that afternoon: A Beginner's Guide to Lucid Dreaming. She looked back to his time-worn face as he let out a contented sigh in his sleep. She couldn't help but wonder what he was dreaming about as a wide smile peeked out from under his oxygen mask.

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Hey folks; Lora here. The idea for this just popped into my head, so I blew off my chores and sat down to write it out. It's such a simple tale, I'm sure someone has written it before. But maybe not. If so, I apologize for my unwitting plagiarism.