Setting Suns | A Coania Short Story

14 | Lifelong Promises

But as Cole sat there, his lips pressed into a thin line, eyes focused on the setting sun as the day turned into night, he could understand the peace she found in its presence. The sounds of nature were more natural than any music he had ever heard, everything was according to the ways of the world.

The beauty of the night sky was one in a million and enticed him no matter how many times he'd stared at it.

Thanks, Mom. He knew it was her that was, somehow, the cause of this phenomena happening around him. And when the stars twinkled and the birds chirped in response, he knew he was right.

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️

It was around six in the evening when Cole finally had the courage to leave the side of his mother's grave—well, he would've stayed longer if the cemetery guard hadn't kicked him out himself. But nonetheless, Cole brought himself to do what he had planned for tonight.

"Alright, what's next?" He asked himself, checking the piece of paper in his hand, covered in a scribble of ink that was meant to form a list.

He'd been roaming around the city for the last few minutes now, picking things up from here and there to prepare for the rest of the evening.

"Cake...hmm maybe I'll save that for last."

Although the thought of the chocolate goodness that came with the ganache frosting was hard to resist. Cole's mouth was already watering from the thought of it. He shook his head.

"This isn't about food, Cole. This is about you and Vania." And maybe a little about cake.

He turned the wheel of his vehicle around the corner of Andreasen street, his eyes skimming past the stands and stalls that sold almost everything to anyone. Well, not everything. They didn't have what he was looking for.

At the back of his car was an arrangement of food packed in a basket where a red and white picnic blanket was folded on top of it. Beside the woven wood splints was a giant stuffed dragon he had planned on giving to her that night.

It was big enough to reach the top of his car and occupy ⅓ of the seat. It baffled him how easy it was to win the prize in the first place. The dragon had a pale smoke front that trailed to the tip of its neck and to the bottom of its feet, while its back was colored in a teal gradient that ran along the spikes of its tail.

The rain fell in a soft pitter-patter on the hood of his car and dotted his windshield. It had been raining for the last few days now, like a sign that a storm was coming. Or perhaps the sky was simply crying over something.

Cole understood. Everyone needed to cry sometimes.

Even the sky.

An ambulance rushed past him, the sirens a blinding red and blue light that almost made him lose his grip on the wheel. Almost. Cole wasn't taking his chances with death tonight. It had been a few months since Cole first met Vania and from then on, his life had flipped.

Out of all the dates they had been on together, Cole could remember a small detail that Vania had fixated over. "It wouldn't be as romantic." She'd said that one night, imprinting the words into Cole's mind.

And even though he didn't have the slightest clue on how to be romantic, he was nothing but open to the challenge. In his mind's eye, there was nothing more romantic than a picnic under the stars that celebrated the day they first met.

So Cole parked his car in one of the many open parking lots that were littered across the city and waited for her presence.

It wasn't like Vania to stand him up without as much as a warning through her sister's phone. Harumi had been their main source of contact after Vania revealed she only had limited access to a phone.