EXIT

 

Ellen met me on the hillside. I didn’t like the look in her eyes. She was terrified. She couldn’t speak. She hyperventilated. Panic had set in. I tried to reassure her, but she’d have none of it. She pulled away and ran over the rise, there. It wasn’t going to be easy. I followed in the darkness, but tripped on an old root, which sent me toppling. I rolled, uncontrollably,  down the hill. I may have blacked out. 

In the meantime, she had time to escape, and she took it.

Released from the ER, I had cracked three ribs with a few abrasions, but that was not my worry.  All I cared about was Ellen.  

Three days, now…

and five days after that. Same story. 

I started to believe she wasn’t coming back.

Ten days had passed and her rent was due. She had planned to move in with me, so she gave notice to the landlord, and the apartment was to be rented so she had to get out. I thought, perhaps I should start boxing up a few things…in either case, whether she moved in with me, or….you don’t want to think about it…

I grabbed a dinner to go – cheap, Vietnamese – and decide to spend the evening doing some light packing, with a few beers. I took the stairs, three flights up, because it always beat the elevator, especially when it was "stuck on three".

When I got there, a bit out of breath, I saw her door open slightly, then close. I wondered if someone had noticed the lack of activity and gained entry. I set down my dinner and proceeded with caution, which I hardly ever do. I approached the door and tried to see through the peep hole, to no avail. But, I had them cornered. 
“I could call the cops”, I was thinking, maybe aloud, then the door opened a crack.

I approached and pushed it open. As the light spilled across the room, I saw her – Ellen.

“Is that you? Are you alright?”

“I came to pack. To leave.”

“...to my place for awhile ?”

“Not to your place, or any place you are.”

“Why”

“I started to see!”

“Yes?”

“To see myself…with you…forever, and I just ran, Still running, so please, clear a lane and allow me to escape.”

I stepped aside, and she was gone. 

I ate one last meal at her place, before locking up for good.

V

THE DISTURBANCE

 

I woke up, pulled the shades, allowing morning’s light to spill across the room…when a sparrow, out of nowhere, smashed into the window’s reflection of the sunrise, and broke it’s neck. He should have seen it, the sun shined so clear, it didn’t register.

It’s final gasp in my hand, warm…but he grew stiff…it was due, and done, in a whisper.

“Due” to timing…to reflections, and refractions…to speed, to flight, and it’s swift myriad of angles.

'Here's to split-second decisions, right or wrong.'

He just never saw it coming. Poor thing.

I was just killing time…wasting time… waiting for the coffee to perc’… still groggy, I went over to kiss your Mom. But, I stopped to pull the shade first, he forgot to look in that second, and …bonk.

A ‘Dead’ sound, recognized instinctively, as a finale, has stuck with me throughout the day. 

V