Tom C. Hunley

[from Tom C. Hunley's Octopus, Logan House, 2008]

Niagara Falls Honeymoon

In this setting, how could there be a conflict?
The water keeps breaking on the rocks, like an
an endless stream of promises. She is just
out of college. He is just out of rehab. Man
versus nature, man versus self, man versus woman.
Tonight will be her first time. It will be his first time.
He doesn't have a quarter ounce of pot

stashed in his suitcase. She isn't pregnant. I am
an unreliable narrator, but you can believe me: there
will be a climax, plenty of dialogue, a plot twist that
looks tiny at first, though it changes

everything, and keeps growing. There will be
a resolution, and much later, an ending. For now,
he sits on a rock, she sits on his lap, and his
eyes try hard to hold all this new beauty
as water falls down the crags of her cheeks.