Gatsby's Green Light

Gatsby’s Green Light

By M. F. B. Porter

They all stood huddled together in the yellow, luminous lamplight.  They were small in number, just four- but their combined histories made for explosive and poisonous chemistry.  Though, as they all stood in the street on the edge of night, none of them knew their futures, or the darkness that would follow them because of their accidental meeting and great misfortune of ever getting to know one another.

There was Blue, an introvert-until she had met the others.  She had golden hair and hazel eyes that whispered quietly of old sadness, though they glittered from a young, innocent face.

There was Green, with slightly more angular features than Blue, and with auburn hair that shone burnt red in the dim light.  Green had eep sparkling eyes too, full of life like a forest.  Green was close with Blue, before the two had ever met the others.  Theirs was a shared sadness; different memories but a joint understanding.

Then there was Purple.  Purple was taller than Blue or Green, very thin and statuesque.  She had ice-cold blue eyes— both entrancing and haunting.  You both craved their gaze and were horrified of their frosty illuminate secrets, of which there were many.

Then there was Orange.  He had caramel colored hair and tan skin that had seen too much sun.  He was muscular and had a very demanding presence about him.  There was an air of confidence around Orange that both intimidated and was undeniably and dangerously magnetic.  Everything about his appearance was warm’ in his eyes deceptively soothing.

Purple slung her pale thin arm casually around the shoulders of Orange, who smirked smugly.  Next, Puple wrapped her other long, tentacle ararm around Green aggressively at her waist.  Last, Green reached out her soft hand for Blue, who took it and clutched it reassuringly, with longtime memories and looks solidly held between them.

They all moved in a breath closer and smiled their smiles— Orange smug and handsome, Purple’s full teethed grin, sultry and uncomfortable, Green with shining eyes and vibrancy, and then Blue, with a  small smirk that was all she could muster.  A flash momentarily blinded the group as the brief clicking sound of a camera sounded.  In that moment, as the group clung together in the night with their faces on for the photo, Gree and Blue both silently thought in unison a very peculiar thought.  They thought that, in that strange, forced, perfect, awkward, short, infinite moment, that the four of them there on the street could’ve been anyone, anytime, young or old, boys or girls, yesterday or tomorrow, and it was an unsettling, large sort of thought.

“Gatsby,” whispered Blue to Green, still suspended in the moment.  Purple and Orange took o note of the comment.  Immediately, Green nodded in quiet understanding.  A quote surfaced from the sea of words lapping on the shores of her mind.  I was within and without.  And the two of them understood.