Member-only story

Ride on a Rainbow

A Romance

Ronald C. Flores-Gunkle
5 min readJun 15, 2024

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[Note: This story originally appeared in P.S. I Love You in 2017 and was copied to my archive. All my stories from that publication have been hacked and I am gradually replacing them. Its companion piece My Funny Valentino” appeared in The Weekly Knob. That story, among others, wasn’t hacked but disappeared when the publication became Hinged. I later located it in a Hinged file. Advice to Medium writers: backup every story!)

Photo: Aaron Blanco-Tejador on Unsplash

“Where are you?
Where have you gone without me?”

There had been recognition in his eyes when I last sang this to him. The irony of it was lost to him, of course, but it was painfully clear to me. He was ambulatory then, walked up to our piano, rested his chin on crossed arms atop the mahogany upright, and looked at me intently, his blue eyes framed in a mop of white.

He was proud of not having lost his hair, and mocked me for my vanity in wearing a hat outside the house — we still went outside then. His hair was so black when I first saw him in the bar that it looked blue. Superboy, I called him; like the comic book hero. His skin was luminous — probably an effect of the filtered, flattering light. But, in the dawning of the next day, I saw it was indeed flawless. Adolescence had left not a single mark.

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Ronald C. Flores-Gunkle
Ronald C. Flores-Gunkle

Written by Ronald C. Flores-Gunkle

An aging octogenarion and humanist hanging on to his passions: his wife, his family, his writing, painting, photography, gardening and reading in bed.

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