The silence followed her last words, like a slow ship on a deep ocean, and lingered until I walked away.
It was the day of the torrential rain storm, I remember because I was stuck in the middle of it, with her. We’d spent the day by the lake, watching the water be host to several bird’s baths and it was a place to sink small pebbles we’d found. The leaden lake swallowed them whole. The reflection of the sky fell on the water surface like a blemished grey skin; it contrasted perfectly with her rosy complexion.
It was just before I noticed the first spot of rain that she told me.
The air had a biting touch. Her face took the quality of porcelain, only without the sheen, and she’d closed the drapes in her eyes.
“We need to talk.”
She broke the shell around her lips just to whisper those words. I preferred her in porcelain now.
She mouthed more syllables and sounds, but they span past my ears. She spoke for only a moment but it circled us and circled us, lifted us twenty feet in the air and let us plunge hard and fast. The rain followed us down. I thought she must have taken a pin up with her and done it on purpose because she was the one who made the drops tickle my face.
I hoped the crashes above would crush her thoughts, or change them. I hoped the vivid flashes would hurry her to the nearest cafe and over coffee she’d forget. Instead, my shirt was almost see-through and her hair clung to her cheeks.
I wasn’t sure what she meant, but I knew my answer was no. The thud of my chest repeated it over and over, so I couldn’t ignore it.
“If you think we can make it work, we need to start now.” She pulsed.
“If not, we needn’t say another word.”
I saw the silence follow her last words like a near-still ship on a dark and bitter ocean...
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