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FIVE

“Okay, this is getting creepy. I think…”

“Woman, I don’t like it when people talk while I am driving, so could you please stay quiet till we get to our destination?”

“I doubt if there is going to be any destination in this place,” Ashley took a look at the mass of trees that kept running past as Dave drove with concentration towards their so called destination.

It was already past an hour that they left his company and they had already spent about fifteen minutes dashing past the secluded road that was filled with vast trees on both sides of the road. Ashley wasn’t so sure what to think anymore. Dave was not saying anything either, he was too concentrated on the stony road ahead, you would think his whole existence depended on it.

“We are here,” Dave announced to Ashley’s delight.

As she opened her eyes, the delight turned sour without even having the chance to be celebrated. Agape, she slowly tilted her head towards the smiling man. “Are you kidding me right now?”

“Does it look like I am?”

“Yeah, it sort of does.” Gasping immediately, she looked ahead to take another unbelieving look at the scenery ahead. “You… this is a goddamn cemetery for God’s sake. You are going to kill me aren’t you?”

“Yeah. Then I’ll cut you into pieces and cook you till your meat is soft.” He gave a hearty chuckle at the scared expression her face instantly gave in response. “Calm down Ashley, you can trust me when I say being here is not to hurt you but to help.”

Relaxing a bit, her tense muscles, Ashley sat back, her lips quivering as she struggled to get a reasonable statement formed. After some seconds of silence and a goofy smile from Dave, she finally asked, “So, what exactly are we doing here?”

“We are here to kill your anger.”

“Uh?”

He held up a finger at her and resumed scuffling through the back seat. With increased wonder and a racing mind which couldn’t help but react to the little expose of his lower abdomen, Ashley watched. Dave stretched towards her, a piece of paper which Ashley looked at confused.

“What’s with the paper?”

“Just have it. I will explain.” Ashley reluctantly collected the material, her hand grabbing the pen he extended to her next. Her eyes leaving the whiteness, Ashley’s eyes met Dave’s twinkling ones and she eagerly awaited his explanation.

“So, you just got divorced. It must hurt right? And I can tell you are not the cause of this sudden change in your life. If you were , you wouldn’t still be wearing that air of misery around you.” Ashley frowned a bit.

“You must also be angry. It is in your eyes and also in the way you speak. We need to get rid of that anger. It is the first step and most important step in fixing you.”

“And how are we going to do that?”

“That paper in your hand, you are going to write every emotion you are feeling right now, into it. Don’t think too much, just picture the last few weeks and capture how you feel about it and put it in writing.”

“Just like that?”

Dave gave a short nod, “Just like that.”

Her eyes flickering to the paper again, she asked, “After I do that what happens?”

“You just write down your emotions first.”

“This is rather silly, don’t you think?”

“Just do as I say Ashley. Stop questioning everything I say or do. I am not here to get to you but to help you. So...” he gestured to the paper in her hands.

“Okay.” It was just so useless to try to be snarky in the slightest way with him.

“I’ll give you some space. When you are done, meet me inside the cemetery.”

There was a lot of things wrong with his last statement but she ignored it and nodded in understanding.

~

Thirty minutes. It took her thirty minutes to accomplish the task. Fifteen was spent on reliving the emotions that gushed through her when she found her husband with her mother and the rest, well, she used it to furiously attack the paper in her hand.

Feeling a bit relieved after the little emotional exercise, Ashley took one last look at the cursive writing and her eyes skimmed through the tale she had written.

Soon, she found herself walking towards Dave who stood many metres away from the car, arms crossed as he watched the empty scene ahead. Still finding the graveyard a bit creepy, Ashley was glad he did not bring her there at night.

“I am done.”

His hair flying in accordance to the cool breeze that never ceased coming, Dave turned, a short tug on his lips. “Good. Give it to me.”

She took a stance beside him after he collected the inked paper. Answering her inner mind’s question, Dave did not take a single peek at the piece of paper. Instead, his hands went to work, folded the paper until it was molded as a plane.

With increasing interest, Ashley watched.

“Here hold this.” He handed her the paper plane, Ashley seeing little peeks of her handwriting. With no warning, Dave whiffed out a gun to Ashley’s dismay.

“What on earth are you holding a gun for?”

“Calm down…”

“Don’t freaking tell me to calm down when you have a gun in your hand and when I am freaking here with you in a fucking graveyard!”

“Jeez woman, have some respect for the dead.” There was just this thing about his smiling persona that got her melting inside. “And calm down, we are using this baby to murder your written anger.”

“Uh?”

“We,” he reached for the plane on her palm which had been so close to getting squished during her freak out drama. “,are going to fly this plane and shoot it down. Ashley, we are going to kill this anger of yours right here in this cemetery.”

She could swear that he was nuts. But then, he sort of made sense. “I… I don’t even know how to use a gun.”

“That’s why I am here, darling.” His accent really dragged the statement in a way that delighted her whole system. Smirking now, Dave proceeded to send the paper flying. As the latter floated in the air without any disturbance, Ashley watched and the words she wrote there started coming to her.

Without warning, Dave’s hand grabbed hers, the gun rested in her palm, his other hand grabbed her other hand and he put in a position ready to shoot anything down.

“Carefully, put your hand on the tri… good. Now we have to get your line of sight right.” As if it was not enough that he was whispering into her ears in a suggestive manner, he went on to trail his hands across hers, carefully and intended.

As his hands helped her achieve a suitable line of sight, his breath fanned her exposed neck causing Ashley to lose herself a bit.

The feeling it gave her was new, or maybe different was a better word. Whichever it was, Ashley liked it and she wanted more of it.

“Get ready to shoot anytime soon.” But before wanting more, she was in the process of killing her anger. “Don’t worry, there’s a silencer attached, we won’t be making any noise. When I say go, you press that trigger, okay?”

Ashley nodded in affirmative.

“Go.” That was all she needed. She attacked the paper with all she got. Emotions overflowing, Ashley could hear her screams as the paper disappeared bit by bit mid air.

Even after the paper had been completed ruined, Ashley kept hollering, cursing, angrily. Even after the bullets had finished, she kept shooting at the empty space. Her eyes were blur from tears, her mind was shut as it focused on one thing.

Her ears were blocked, she did not hear Dave telling her to stop already.

The one thing that brought her out of her trance was Dave’s lips as he turned her to face him and smashed it against her. Her anger was forgotten in an instant. She responded without thinking, her legs propping her higher to receive more of the gentle, yet intense mouth lock.

“God knows I have wanted to do that ever since setting my eyes on you.” Ashley replied his raspy confession with her heavy breathing. Not sure whether to smile or cry or maybe continue the initiated kiss, she just stood there, her arms around Dave’s neck.

After minutes passed, a calmer Ashley decided to answer the one question that led the both of them to that point. “You asked what my story was?” Dave blinked furiously within a second as her eyes flickered to his. “Well, it is a really funny yet sad one.”

“Hit me. I am sure I can take it.”

Ashley chuckled. “On a fateful day, I came back from work, happy and all. I had just bagged a big contract and all I wanted to do was share the good news with my husband but,” she just had to chuckle again. “, I was in for a shock. On entering my room, the sight that greeted me was my so called husband plowing a woman on my own bed. And that woman? She was my mother.”

“Your mother?” Ashley smirked, didn’t he say he could take the hit?

“My freaking mother.”

“I… why?”

“I don’t know how it all played out. I don’t… I don’t get…”

“Hey,” Dave went on to cup both sides of her face. “,I have an idea. It is sure to make you feel a lot better.”

Hoping it was another lip lock as she was beginning to get a bit addicted to it, she asked, “What’s that?” Dave did not reply her, instead, he smiled, grabbed her hand and walked her towards the car. “Dave, what is this idea of yours? I hope it doesn’t involve any more guns.”

“Nope.” He stopped to face her, a mischievous smile on his face. “But it does involve your ex-husband.”

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