There was a pause.
Not uncomfortable, never uncomfortable, but not unnoticed.
'Why do you tell me? We're stuck here.
It's the end and yet you dwell on what has passed.
Surely there's more that matters.'

She trailed off, unsure of where she was going.

'Ahh, but there is nothing that matters more at the end than what has passed.'

He let that comment sit in the sticky air.
'Take us, for instance.'
He continued.
She kicked rocks up onto her foot and into the sea.

'Would we ever talk like this should we have known each other at home?
This candidly? No.
There are no cameras out here.
Not that we'd be worried about doing something wrong.
This isn't wrong.
But worried about what people would think. What they'd say.
We wouldn't voice these concerns to each other, but they'd be there.
Complete comfort, complete ease.
But it would be tainted by the sins of those who have gone before.
The minds of those who search for judgement.'

He had a habit of going off into unintelligible speech at the end.
Breath seemed to evade him for a moment, then release.

She usually had some quick reply. Funny to only them;
But she just stood there. Without speaking.

When you stop speaking, the sounds around you seem to amplify.
Suddenly the rustle of the leaves nearby,
The twiddle of the birds,
The rush of white water meeting sand,
The distant commotion of the rest of the group setting up a fire.