Reunion (mf)
 mf


His shiny black shoes almost glowed in the dingy room. She kept her eyes
fixed on them as he ordered. Eggs the way she liked them, sunny-side up,
like open eyes. Toast on the side, no jam. Just tea for him. He'd complain
about the tea, of course. Why couldn't they boil the water? How long had
they left the tea, already steeped, sitting in the dirty glass pot?

She switched her gaze from shoes to plate. Forcing herself to eat slowly. He
rattled the way he always did when he was nervous. Clattered the mug down
and spilled tea over the sides to be wiped up easily on the red and white
checked vinyl tablecloth. They were there for what seemed like hours before
he took her arm and pulled her out the door.

The motel was only across the street. Instead, he cut through the fields and
she followed. Fields of golden sunflowers, scattered patches of Queen Anne's
lace and bright purple tufted things. Scratchy fields. When she pulled off
her dress and lay down on it, she could still feel the stubbly grass and
stubborn stones beneath her. Every breeze brought thousands of tiny grasses
brushing against her bare body, each stem feeling like skittering insects.
She clenched her fingers into the damp soil to hold her there. So she
wouldn't leap up and run naked onto the highway.

When he came, he was crying. Maybe she was too. It was hard to tell with the
sun beating down and sweat still dripping down her face and onto his beaky
nose. She hushed him with soft kisses. His legs wrapped convulsively around
hers, broken promises falling out of his mouth like rain, or tears, or
children. Running off into the grass.

Slowly pulses calmed. They slept under a cloak of her mustard hair, her head
nestled under his sharp chin.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe it would be like that. But more likely it wouldn't. Janie stepped away
from the phone once more, to sit in a shrinking pool of sunlight by the
window. The brindle cat leapt momentarily into her lap, long enough to leave
a jagged gash along her thigh. Janie's fingers clenched tightly in the space
the cat had been. Too late.