Dante

"Sometimes it's best to just let go of the past. Literally. You know, like, just go somewhere else. Somewhere people don't know you, and you don't know them. A place where your past won't matter to you." Dante mumbled as he stared at the open sea before us. I watched the wind blew his dark brown hair, the strands covering up the sad glimmer apparent in his eyes just seconds before.

"Is it? Is that what you're doing now? Running away from your problematic past?" He laughed at my question, promptly turning his dark pools towards mine. I stared back, challenging him to answer. 

"My past was not problematic. It was rather... bland, if I must say. I came from American dream family, white picket fence and all, you know. I'm grateful for that, but I felt like something was missing...." He paused, taking a handful of the dry sand, letting them slipped through his fingers bit by bit. His silence was getting to me, wearing down my already thin patience.

"And here you are? This small fisherman village across the world, of all place? To search the missing piece?" I joined him, playing around with the white sand, writing our names together. Dante grinned as he started adding little details to our names. Hearts, starts, little animals. It was minutes before he answered.

" I've been to many places. This is just one of the stops. I don't even know where I'll be next week." He turned to me and brushed the golden strands away from my face, our eyes meeting for the nth time.  

"Take me with you, Dante? To the lowest of hell, the hardest of purgatory, the highest of heaven... I'd rather be with you than just left, you know, alone." 

"Though I really appreciate you Divine Comedy reference, but life out there is just that, you know. Sometimes, it's really hard, could be really interesting, may be really painful. You're a gentle soul, and it will press you even more being out there than just staying here, Lem, for now."  

"Wait it out. For your heart to harden a bit, and by then I'll come back to take you with me." He patted my shoulder, ever so gently, with a weak smile on his handsome face. 

I nodded meekly, as bit by bit Dante started to disappear into thin air. His last touch remained warm on my bare shoulder, his last smile embedded on my brain. 

Someday. 

Someday I'll be good enough for him to take me out there.