Howl

They walked arm-in-arm down the long tree-lined drive, their feet crushing and scattering the dry gravel and kicking up red dust. The homestead was still far off, and even without the cover of hedges and towering trees, it would be invisible in the descending gloom. Their walk had been slower tonight, the warm summer air with its sweet grassy scent and the rustling of leaves lulling them toward a sleepy malaise. It had taken an hour to reach the end of the drive, Isaac almost dragging his heals as he turned his head dazedly from side-to-side, looking through the flanking trees across the old fields. The grass, no longer cut, had become overgrown and now swept about the trunks of trees, baked to yellow husks from days of blistering summer sun. They had slowed to a stop when they finally reached the highway, where the drive broadened to a gravel turn-around beyond the bleached wooden gate. They had just stood there, the breeze continuing to hiss as it threaded through the timber rails and dry grass. Nothing moved on the highway anymore, even during the day. The drive met it at a perfect right angle, and from where they stood, they could look down both lengths of the cracked and blackened asphalt until it blurred in the distance with the fading horizon. Ahead of them, the sun had finally touched the earth and its sluggish red light saturated the plain, turning everything to gold. Isaac had wanted to watch the sun go down and pulling Esther across with him, had leaned against the red-brick gate post, where the black-branded letters of the title could be read, burnt deep into the tarnished board. He had held her close, surprised to find her fingers already chilled as at once the wind begun to sweep away the day’s heat. Long slender fingers belonging to this tall slender girl, with her sleeves pulled up into her palms and knuckles pressed into his chest as she sheltered against him. He watched as the burning sun liquefied the horizon, turning it into molten waves that shimmered and tumbled continually, but she turned her head away and pressed her face against his neck. He gripped her tighter.

Their return was faster. Esther walking steadily, her eyes on the road even as Isaac continued to gaze around. The wind had picked up. All around, the trees and grasses began to stir and murmur. A wild and mischievous energy seemed to have crept back into the world at the withdrawal of the sun’s glare, and with unseen feet and hands it ran coltish across the fields, kicking up grass husks, stamping on branches and rattling trees. The road ahead began to snake and writhe along its length as the parallel lines of trees were tossed to-and-fro, rippling away into the darkness. The grasses bent and heaved like seaweed, and reflected the pale sky in shining waves that sped across the fields. Clouds appeared above them, mountainous white forms racing overhead, contorting and cascading without sound as they expanded over the sky. The night had come alive.

Isaac began to feel that energy within himself. A slow charge beginning to electrify his muscles and awaken his senses. He felt a wild excitement, a pure mania within him as he gazed around, wide-eyed, at the escalating concert. His muscles tensed, his mind sharpened, he watched all the movement around him, the swirling colour, the cacophonous noise, faster and ever louder. He waited for the explosion -or the collapse- a burst of thunder, a crash of timber, or a cry in the night, but the energies just continued to mass. And then he felt the call, an invitation to join the fury, to throw his hands in the air and dash off into the night, shouting and dancing amid maelstrom. His walk began to falter as he tensed, his limbs coiling for an outburst and Esther began to pull at him, her bent elbow still locked around his. Isaac stopped suddenly and she was pulled around in front of him, hair tossing, her pale face staring up into his dancing eyes, far away and changed.

“Isaac…?”

The tide broke, and the sweeping madness finally overwhelmed Isaac’s senses. His arms rose up, sliding from Esther’s grasp, his chest expanded, his head rolled back and his jaw opened wide. Directing the fury upward and outward, he howled into the night sky. The sound broke out violently and suddenly above the now roaring wind and rang in their ears. Esther jumped back from him, her white face stricken. It went on and on, a long drawn out howl and Esther grasped at him fiercely and senselessly, frantically searching him for meaning. His voice cracked and then went out, Esther braced him as he wavered, breathless and shrunken, but before she could recover, Isaac had drawn in another breath, expanded his lungs further, and straightening, he loosed another shattering howl, louder and more unbearable. The sound felt liquid in his throat, as though his stomach was well of black water that was bursting forth, leaving him and flooding the air and sky around him. He was alive, uplifted by the raw energy and naked violence that he conducted. His mind reeled at the horror and wonder he felt, only dimly aware of the pale and deadened figure of Esther in front of him. As he howled, eyes shut tight; he reached out and seized her arms, trying to bring her into this feeling, into his mania, to pull her across the void that had suddenly separated them. And through her love, her trust, or through other senses, she saw through the madness and her spirit found his. Her wet eyes began to glisten and sparkle as her terror turned to passion and she felt her wooden body warm, her chest inflate and fingers dig into Isaac's own hard grip. When his howl began to fade, her own erupted outward, higher and constricted, but with eyes shut tight and head thrown back as he did. Isaac stared at her through streaming eyes as he drew in more of the desert air, feeling in his ears her piercing vernal scream. He roared again, silencing her and she rallied for another, her face alight and eyes frenzied as she stared up. She howled again, louder and more violently, her voice passing into and through his, and they merged, the wolven bay and vixen scream, even as their two bodies were wrapped together. Two lovers entwined amid the swirling night.