The Star?

   Florence has not lived long enough in this town to love it but long enough to know she has seen strange things. Being a creature of habit, she does her chores in the afternoon where around 1 pm she would be in your backyard taking down the dry clothes from the lining and putting on the wet ones.

   She would look up at the sky and watch it change color from noon to sunset. When she is back in the house, she goes to her bathroom, wipes down her sink, and fixes her hanging towels so that it is straight in the row. 

   She notices a big and bright star as she glances to the left side of her bathroom window glowing golden color. Wow, how early it is to see a star, she thought and every afternoon that she'd see it, until, she finally remembers to tell her mom about it over the phone after being exhausted listening to her about the game show last night. 

" Maybe we are being watched" she joked rather lightly.

" Maybe" Florence replied and they left it at that. Florence remained quiet for a while and her mother asked, " Florence, honey? Is it George again?"

That question jolted Florence back to reality," Oh god no mom!"

" Oh good!" Her mother screamed back at her, laughing.

   Florence laughed too and after saying goodbye to her mom," I'm sorry mom. The last couple of days that I have been here have been okay but I am just not at home here and honestly, I am just thinking that I should leave."

" Give it time." her mother advised her but her daughter sighed.

" That is what I did and look what happened. Bye." Florence hanged up quickly. 

   A favorite childhood horror movie was shown on television and although she hates to miss her favorite part, she had to go to the bathroom. When she finished she felt the cool breeze coming through the window and see the same bright star shining brilliantly in the dark blue sky. She smiled at it knowingly, There you are star.

   Between the daily hazardous of trying to settle in a family-oriented small town that she does like, the ruthlessness of the days of meeting people are terrible because the true nature of the people there makes her understand that although she has been alone for a month before she moved into this town she been lonelier than usual. There is hardly a single man and there is always a family-oriented event that happens around the busiest of parts of town.

   Florence has finished her duties and was preparing to take a shower when she saw a tiny reddish bright light hovering over a series of homes and slowly moving around it downward. She blinks curiously at it, strange a star doing that.

   An hour had passed as she walks to meet Murphy who was standing at her front door. A fair skin middle-aged man with short chestnut hair wearing jeans and a shirt was waiting for her contribution to a fair one of many she had made great efforts to miss suddenly. 

   "Hello Murphy, here it is," she says, showing him her baked goods of homemade cakes and the remaining hotdogs buns that she thought could be useful.  

   " Aren't you coming Florence?" He asked taking the food from her unexpectedly.

   " No, no." she avoids looking up at him." I have something to do." she lied.

   She remembered the heat from that day - hot but comfortable and she was determined to stay away. So he nods quietly and smiled as he walked back toward his car. She rushes into the house and she shuts the front door. 

   She went to bed late that day. She could leave quickly, she thought. She owed no one any explanation since she barely knew anyone anyway. She just feared him figuring it out. Yesterday, he invited her to sit near his sons which made her feel uncomfortable but she obeyed nervously awaiting the arrival of his wife which gave her a great excuse to leave altogether. 

   Then one night right after midnight she had gone to use the bathroom after drinking too much lemonade and fruit punch at a luncheon at work and noticed a big bright golden light shining to the right of her bathroom window but she went to bed completely ignoring it. 

   Florence had to go to a school play because she was supposed to be overseeing how the drama team was progressing whether the school should just have a sports team instead. She was jotting down notes not just about the play but about the experience and matching them quickly to the sports games being held just a month ago. Apparently, there have been complaints that one activity is getting more attention than the other and she was supposed to find a solution that would help her get promoted.

   Then she turns around and sees Murphy looking at her while his wife sitting with his son watching the school play that their daughter is performing in. Florence smiled meekly at him, gets up, and walks away. Before she reaches the door to exit the auditorium, she bumps into Murphy's chest headfirst. He smells and feels the same way as when she had tried to leave the Halloween party but bumped into him instead with his arms enveloping her in a warm and passionate embrace whereas other arms grabbed aggressively and were abrasive. Before then things were fine and she thought they were just casual friends.  

" I'm sorry excuse me." She says trying to go around him. 

" It's me Florence. How have you been? I noticed that you have not been around much for the sports games and the fairs." he asked looking genuinely concerned. 

" Oh. I am fine." she said looking at him nodding," I got to write this report as quickly as possible." 

But Murphy pressed on, " So which team is going to get knocked off?"

" You know I can't answer that yet." She was taken aback by this question because as involved as he is as a father in his kids' life in school, he did not seem too interested in the decisions the administration made about the school activities themselves. 

   The light was dim but she can see his eyes and he seemed focused. At the Halloween party, it was darker and only lit by artificial candlelight in that particular room. She was wearing a red floral dress because she could not find her black dress so she looked like she should have been attending a barbecue instead. He held her tightly to him that night and she did not even know it was him yet. She put her hands up to protest against him but suddenly she was unable to speak but her hand up went to his shoulders. 

   " The sports team has only one game a year and the drama team gets two plays. It is not fair to the boys to have such little practice and exposure." Murphy said calmly.  Florence breathe in slowly and said " Yes, you are right. I did make a note of that." She stood there and waited for him to move aside. He nodded quietly and as she pushed the door to leave, Murphy added " The next fair will be tomorrow maybe you will have a different viewpoint if you attended Florence. "

   She froze and turned around slowly facing Murphy looking into this dimly lit bright eyes," OK then." Murphy nodded gallantly and looked at his phone and walked away.  

   Florence went home and quickly wrote a short article based on the notes she has already had and then thought about Murphy. She dials her mother.

" Hello, mom."

" Hello Honey.. this is rather nice. Guess what happened at last night's show?"  her mom exclaimed. 

" Mom?" Florence whispered.

" Florence? Are you okay? Why are you whispering?" her mother sounded confused." Are you scared? Do you want me to call the police for you?!"

   Florence took a deep breath and told her mom," I made a mistake but it was an accident."

" What mistake? An accident?" her mother said sounded concerned.

" I had an affair with a married man on Halloween. He does not even know it was me."

" Oh really? Any man that I would know?" her mom sounded interested.

" No." 

" Tell me Florence. You can tell me and if his wife finds out it's not your fault." Her mother assures her.

   Two hours had passed and Florence looked at her packed bags that after the fair, she'd write her report and leave town. Her mom might be dangerously right if Murphy was asking her to go to the fair personally targeting her job since he already noted he had not seen her in a while. 

   She got dressed in her bootcut jeans and her pink floral blouse and went to the fair where there was a small gathering of the people who were discussing the school's politics of activities among the Drama team and the Sports team. Meanwhile, there was a small baseball game playing and Murphy was there with his family.

   Frances was there as well and Florence wondered if she was ever in this position with him before. When she first moved into town, she saw Frances with his kids all the time and she was particularly close with his wife. At times she seem full of joyous energy when she was around Murphy, stout and loud she would be when he talked to his sons about playing baseball and a bit dramatic when his daughter would be around.

   Florence knew a crush when she saw it but with her, it was nothing like that. Murphy would just show her the town by driving her around so she can see everything all at once - it just so happens that they were both alone those times. Florence was not a silly woman either. Murphy was a gorgeous man who really did look great in jeans and it was no secret that his wife was a lucky woman. But even if he was not married, Florence knew anything that would happen between them romantically was nearly impossible and entirely imagined. 

   Florence sat down on the table in between the baseball game and the small gathering of school assembly and acted as passive participant eavesdropping to as much detail as possible. 

   " Frances would you bake those pies you made for the Halloween party? They were fabulous!" chimed Martha. Frances nodded enthusiastically. Then Gretchen walked up to them and asked," That Halloween party was really something, eh? It was more like being in grade school honestly. The darkroom was nothing more than a frat house! That Murphy man was there though right, wasn't that him? God, he is sinfully handsome." Then, they all spontaneously turned around and noticed Florence and approached her with wicked delight.

" So what do you think?" They taunted her. She looked at them and asked, "About what?"

" Oh come on! About the Halloween party?!" they continued.  

   She got up and said, " I was there to help a friend with an assignment nothing else." She walked away quickly and when she managed to find a space no one was in, she dropped her things on the ground to reorganize herself. She packed her bags and when she turned around Murphy was standing there behind her. 

   She looked at him and said nervously, "Hi Murphy, I am going to write a report on how things could be done differently so that both sports and the drama team can work together fairly. "

   He smiled and said," Good. " Then he looked at her sternly in her face and she looked back at him, he stepped closer to her and opened his mouth to say something but Florence stopped him, " I am leaving town Murphy. I can not  stay here anymore." He nodded silently and looked at her sideways," SO that was you?"  She looked at him frozen. 

   " Did you hear what they said?" she asked trying to look over him to see if they were nearby listening as she had been. He nodded and looked at her determinedly and said, " So that was you?"

" I did not know it was you," Florence told him. " I'm sorry." 

" I was willing to leave it in the dark Florence," he said

" So why did you bring me here?" she asked   

" It was unexpected." He said. He walked towards her " I love my wife and my family and what happened between me and you does not need to go anywhere." 

" I don't want to talk about it. It was an accident. I tried to walk away and now I feel ashamed." She walked away and so did he.

   Florence wrote her report with so much sentimental value that it sounded like a farewell note to him. As she brushed her teeth, she noticed a bright golden light at the right of the bathroom window and looked out to see that bright golden light moving across the sky, flickering back and forth, here and there, then suddenly getting bigger and bigger and bigger and BIGGER. Turning reddish gold and continuing to flickering and darting back and forth and here and there. Florence was horrified and shut down the window.

    The next morning on her way to work, Murphy drives his car across her as she was a mile from the school stopping her. " MURPHY?!" she screamed at him but he got out of his car and walked calmly toward her. Within a few inches from her face, he held his hand up and revealed an earring that she did not even notice she had lost. She touched her ear and looked at him in utter disbelief. 

   At that moment, she relived what happened in his eyes, bumping into him headfirst back at the Halloween party in the darkroom after he enveloped her in a passionate embrace where she silently admitted that she felt warm and safe.

   After he felt her shoulders understanding that she is tiny, he slipped his hands under her arms, lifting and placing her on top of him and she wrapped her short legs around his waist and her short arms around his neck kissing him all over his face which led him to caress her neck with his mouth, maybe that was how she lost her earring when he sucked on her ear lopes, the movement of his tongue and his lips exhilarated her breasts as he removed her thin red straps that he could not see but felt.

   The artificial candlelight seem to flicker which urged them that time was limited but he did not waste their time and put her red thin straps back on and went down on his knees, slowly, she can feel the wall with her one of her hands as other was around his neck, landing her on safety on her feet, then placing both of her hands on his face, he ran his hands slowly to feel her legs, up, up, up until he lifted her dress to find her underwear to slip it off and placed his mouth in between her legs to calm fires that will never come again.