Until the Earth Stops Spinning
“Let it be,” Donna insisted, pulling her hand back.
“Are you kidding me? Let me see that.” Jo took Donna’s hand out from behind her back, opening her fingers to reveal bloody constellations dancing across Donna’s palm.
“It’s really nothing, I promise. My hand got caught on a branch is all.”
Jo shook her head. “It’s not nothing, Donna, jeez. And I know it wasn’t a branch.” She turned her palm towards the firelight, trying to see just how deep the wound went. “Where were you going this time?”
Donna’s gaze dropped, and her voice went small. “To you,” she said.
Jo clicked her tongue and brushed Donna’s hair out of her face. Their eyes found each other as the fire crackled beside them, Donna’s injured hand still cradled in Jo’s sturdy one.
“You know you could’ve called me.”
“I know, Jo, I just… had to get out of there,” Donna said. Easy wind rustled the oak trees, surrounding Donna and Jo into their own pocket of security.
“I wish there was more I could do,” Jo said as she bent her head down and clutched Donna’s hand to her chest, tears of fury and protection stinging her eyes.
“Jo, you do everything.” Donna cupped Jo’s face and leaned her forehead against hers. Jo shook her head.
“It’s not enough.”
“Of course it’s enough!” Donna took Jo in her arms and stroked the back of her head.
“I just care about you so much, and I hate that you have to go through that.”
“I know, I know.” Donna pulled away to look Jo in the eyes. “But I have you.” She gave Jo a soft smile. When will she understand?
“You’ll have me until the earth stops spinning, darling,” Jo said. The two broke into quiet laughter that floated up above the trees and settled in with the stars. Jo slipped her hand into Donna’s uninjured one and stood, pulling Donna up with her.
“Sorry,” Donna said.
“Dear, you have nothing to apologize for.”
“I know you always tell me that, but I-”
“Donna. No.”
Leaves and soil squished beneath their steps.
“Tell me about the stars again,” Jo said, gazing up.
“What’s with you and the stars?” Donna bumped Jo’s shoulder.
“They remind me of you…”
Donna smiled at the leaves and squeezed Jo’s hand. The flutter of her heart whenever Jo asked her about the stars never got old for Donna. Jo knew how much she cherished talking about the stars, and Jo lived for admiring Donna when she talked about them. But she could’ve been talking about potato farming for all she cared. Jo loved Donna. She knew she loved Donna from the minute they met.
They first laid eyes on each other in the same forest they strolled now. Jo had decided to go on a walk, try to get out of her own head. She ended up in the forest under the moon when it was at its highest, letting her hand linger on the trunks of the trees she passed and plucking the leaves from their branches. Jo shredded them down to their cells and sprinkled them behind her, a trail back never to be followed.
Jo found Donna rooted in the forest floor. She was lain on her back staring up at the sky and singing a soft melody meant for the trees alone. Jo couldn’t tear herself away, so she sat down against a tree far enough away to go unnoticed and mimicked the way Donna looked up past the trees to the infinite nighttime above. Donna’s voice floated into Jo’s heart and patched it up. It tickled her nose and combed through her hair. She let out a sob, causing Donna to sit up with a start. She peered around her, but the forest was blanketed in darkness, and the sheer sheet of moonlight was not enough to detect intruders. “Hello?” she called out. “Who’s there?” Has he finally found me here?
Jo stood up and came out from behind the tree. She moved closer to Donna, who was still sat on the ground. Oh. Seeing Jo up close, Donna’s face softened from alarm to wonderment.
“It’s just me,” Jo had said.
Donna tilted her head to the side. “And who might that be?”
“Jo. I’m Jo.”
Donna sat up straighter and criss-crossed her legs. She scooted over despite the open space of the forest. Jo sat down next to her. “Why are you crying, Jo?” Donna asked as she wiped the stranger’s face with the soft pad of her thumb. Jo closed her eyes and leaned into Donna’s touch. She didn’t have an answer so she just shook her head.
“I suppose you don’t have to tell me,” said Donna, wiping Jo’s other cheek.
“I heard you singing,” Jo said. “It was really beautiful.”
The slightest of smiles snuck onto Donna’s face, but she dropped her hand from Jo’s tears and dropped her eyes to her lap. “No one was supposed to hear that.”
“I’m glad I did, though.” Jo lifted Donna’s eyes with her own gaze. They held their eyes there for a moment, then another. Donna looked away first. “So what are you doing here at this time? Not that you have to tell me, of course.”
“I was just um…” Donna’s eyes had become glazed over. She was no longer here.
“That’s okay,” Jo had assured her. “You keep your secret and I’ll keep mine. We’ll call it even.” She patted Donna’s shoulder. Donna returned to the forest next to Jo and forced a rickety laugh.
They parted ways once the moon moved to the other side of the earth, but they returned many times after that, drawn to each other like planets. Donna and Jo walked hand in hand through the forest now, moon high in the sky like the very first night and the multitude of nights since.
“I love your beautiful mind.” Jo squeezed Donna’s hand for emphasis.
“It’s just silly star facts,” Donna chuckled.
“Yeah, but I like the way you tell them.” Jo pulled Donna into a side hug, and Donna kissed her cheek.
“For all you know, I’m making this stuff up,” Donna teased, poking Jo’s nose. She may have thought she was playing it cool, but Donna could tell Jo loved her. Donna knew they were in love. Heck, thousands of miles away as they were, the moon and all the stars could tell. Donna never felt safer than when she was with Jo. Even the night they met, Donna could tell that Jo meant no harm. She was as gentle as a doe.
“How’s your hand?” Jo asked.
“It’s fine. Really. See?” Donna waved her hand in the air.
“I don’t believe you.” Jo brought Donna’s hand to her lips and kissed the heel of her palm. “I wish you’d leave that place.”
“You know I can’t, Jo.” Donna took her bloodied hand back but kept the other entwined with Jo’s to keep from floating away. That happened sometimes when she thought of him. But Jo always brought her back to Earth and returned her to reality where she was waiting with open arms. They fit together like puzzle pieces, a jigsaw of broken fragments.
Jo stopped walking and turned to face Donna. She traced Donna’s knuckles with her thumb, wondering which stars must’ve aligned to have brought them together that first night in the forest. How hard did the universe have to work to stitch their hearts to one another so that they didn’t have to endure this painful life alone? Jo rooted her feet to the forest floor. A shaky wind entered her lungs then returned into the ether. “Donna, I…I um-”
Donna cupped Jo’s face and delivered a swift kiss. “Sorry, you’re just so cute when you’re searching for words.”
Jo’s laugh was flimsy. She knew her palms were getting sweaty, but she also knew Donna wouldn’t mind, so she ignored the fact. After a sharp inhale of courage, Jo sputtered out, “IloveyouDonna,” and was met with a kiss that made her insides glow.
When Donna finally pulled away, she said, “I love you too, Jo.” With their foreheads pressed together they could pretend their whole world was just this moment.
Jo’s grin could’ve made the forest go up in flames. “I love you.”
“And I love you,” said Donna.
“I looooovve you,” Jo drawled. “You’re my favorite person,” she said, punctuating each word with a kiss on Donna’s face. They giggled at their affection. Nothing could ruin this moment.
Except… Donna knew it would end. Not their love of course, no. That was a flame that was fanned by time itself. But this moment. This moment would end. She’d only be able to hold onto it in her memory despite how tight she held onto Jo right there beneath the oak trees. If this were another life, Donna would never let go. If this were another life, she’d be free.
“Hey, did you hear that?” Donna tightened her grip on Jo’s hand and scanned the lightless forest beyond her.
“No, I think we’re okay,” said Jo.
“I heard it again. We have to go. I have to go.” She looked everywhere but at Jo.
“Donna, I love you!” Jo’s throat had started to tighten and as she had nights before, felt the weight of what she could lose.
“I love you too, Jo.”
They kissed goodbye for now. Moonlight seeped through the spaces between their bodies as they separated, one reluctant limb at a time. Their hearts were heavy with affection until they could meet again. Here in this forest, beneath the moon and the stars and the weight of the world, they would meet and fall in love until the earth stopped spinning.
Elizabeth is a student at The College of New Jersey, majoring in English, and minoring in creative writing and business. She has had a deep love of writing, animals, and music from a young age, and also thinks it would be positively superb to have shapeshifting as a superpower! She has been published in her school’s literary magazine, The Lion’s Eye, and looks forward to sharing more of her work in the future.