A Cool Flame

by David Michael Conner

Miss Amanda Baker had known romantic devotion for all of the years during which one should begin to be moved by sensual desire. Her intended lover, a man considerably more advanced in age, had been the only one she should know in such a manner.

She had seen her neighborhood change over the years she had known him. Though the years were of great significance and determination to Miss Baker in years and quality, Mr. Aaron Gruber was forced by nature to be less moved by them, as the context of his longer life assigned a decidedly less impassioned joy to their affair. Nevertheless, as agreed between them, Miss Amanda Baker would soon be Mrs. Amanda Gruber, and she would take her place in his household.

Mr. Gruber had had nearly two score years to think toward married life, and he had had a lifetime to cultivate freer experiences. Miss Baker had not, but did not think to desire more than the fates had planned for her; she needed not consider other options.

As the time drew nearer, the future Mrs. Gruber began to experience physical symptoms, known only to her, of the expected apprehension of a conjoined life. She had expected seeds of doubt to invade her fertile imagination, given stories her already-engaged and married friends had related to her, but the semi-sickness at the thought of knowing only Mr. Gruber increased to an almost intolerable extent when she no longer had academic pursuits to distract her.

The time came when Mr. Gruber took to one knee and Miss Baker formally accepted his proposition, feeling the parsimonious love of a longtime friend, not lover, for her squatting suitor. Her heart moved her to heat—the heat of consumption, of weary fear and advance regret. She could admire the man, but knew not corporal desire as she knew she must; her body generated a fervent repulsion, not attraction, for him. There was no hunger in her soul. This took a toll on the young woman’s being, and in a short time, even in the context of her young life, she expired under mysterious circumstances. Fate intercepted her marriage; Miss Baker’s husband-to-be found her cold stiff body in her bed. It never occurred to Mr. Gruber that he would have discovered her in the same state if she had lived.