She is curled in the corner like a cat. There’s no reason for it, it just is. It is easier there, under a blanket, purring to herself. It is easier than being out there, doglike, panting and staring up at every one that comes along. She is curled up, claws retracted. She has no intention of going back out there.
Archive for the ‘Not so true’ Category
Red flag
December 16, 2008He pulled out her chair, then demanded a kiss, and she turned him down. His shirt was red as a bullfighter’s cape, and she wished he’d worn something less gaudy.
It was only later, with his forearm across her throat, his mouth hard on hers, that she realized she should have never gone out with him in the first place.
Her eyes darted to one side, then the other, looking for escape. Clouds passed overhead. Stars remained obscured. It was almost the darkest night of the year.
Wind
December 14, 2008There’s no telling what might happen when the wind blows that way. Up high, there may be snow. Down low, the leaves rush away. The wind brings cold and longing and something worse. The wind changes everything.
Escape route
December 2, 2008“Thank you for not running,” he said.
She had one eye on the door, though. One eye on the door at all times. It was best, she had learned, to keep an escape route handy.
Downhill
November 22, 2008She peered down the street from the top of the hill, imagining her feet slapping the sidewalk, the reverberations up into her hips.
She knew the speed would overtake her, the momentum pulling her down to the end of the street, her pace completely out of her control.
She knew she might lose her footing, tumble, scraping bare skin and bruising elbows and knees along the way. She might hit her head.
She started running anyway.
Against better judgment
November 20, 2008He agreed, against his better judgment, to meet her for coffee. Outside, rain washed the street.
“Why did you take me to bed?” she asked. “You knew I’d fall.”
He took one cube of sugar from the bowl, stirred it into the tiny cup of espresso. He liked things concentrated and not too sweet.
“You knew where the door was,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to be unkind.”
He left her there staring at the residue in his cup, the lemon twist on the saucer.
Dizzy
November 12, 2008She stood up and very nearly fell. The dizziness had come over her so quickly as to almost not be believed.
“It’s just blood to the head,” he said. “It’s just a shift in pressure.”
Beads of light darted in her vision. She had been so grounded before, but now, unbidden, the earth had fallen away.
100 Proof 