Grace: Chapter 1

“If my intention was to impress you I would have played it safe, but my intention was to blow your mind so I took this risk” said Bark to Jane, the light of the morning peering through his long black hair blinding her of his red skin and emerald green eyes. He was holding a clear plastic spray bottle of sterilizer. The liquid inside was bright turquoise, it looked as though he had ventured to Exuma, Bahamas himself and scooped the substance directly from the clearest most exotic point of the Atlantic. She imagined all the bright fluorescent fish avoiding the lid of the bottle and a barracuda on its way to bite his hand just before he lifted it out of the water. He had bought and placed professional-grade exercise machines in the middle of the desert. Pointing the bottle towards the seat of rowing machine that Jane had just removed herself from he pulled back on the big white trigger and released a fine mist that poured over the seat and onto the sands of the Nevada desert. “This is oddly beautiful” she whispered in a puzzled and barely audible tone. She closed her eyes for a moment to feel the warmth of the orange sky and when she opened them Bark was erecting an 8 foot pole so that they could have a tent to eat and sleep in. Bark remembered that now ancient morning as vividly as he could feel the dead frozen trees around him as he walked down Duluth towards his Montreal apartment.