Excerpt: ...of Joachim

Silence. It permeated everything it seemed, even though the crickets still called out their song and the wind still blew in the branches of the old trees. I waited for what seemed like an eternity for him to speak first, determined not to give up that quarter. And when it seemed as though he was not going to speak, that I must be the one to open my mouth and allow the words to somehow escape, tumbling out from behind my dried lips, I heard his voice, as clear as a bell, aiming straight for my mind and soul as though it had been precisely sent.

“Dangerous to be sitting out like this at night, you know.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Okay… so there it was. The first words, and where were they going to take us? I shuffled my feet a bit on the pavement, waiting to see what he would say next, or whether or not I should be thinking of something witty to say, something that might knock this stranger off his feet with its intelligence and ---

“You don’t talk much, do you.”

It cut through my thoughts, this statement that was nothing like a question. I threw my head back, looking at him from down the bridge of my nose, able now to better make out his features than when I had been so far away.

“Nah, not so much. Only when prodded.”

“I would bet I could prod you.”

I laughed, my loud, ridiculous laugh, nervousness showing clearly through it at the innuendo he had just made. A smile danced upon his lips as he watched me fight to regain control of myself, a fight I won much sooner than I had expected.