One person’s spiral is another’s snail, and the wind blows through in so many different flavors. They thought they walked on fire, but on that day, it could have very well been heated rocks, or sun-warmed sand, or their own hearts underfoot.
Be careful what you say aloud, she said. Everyone interprets things differently.
They quieted their conversation then, listening, instead, to the rustle of leaves in the trees, or perhaps, of skirts somewhere off to the side.
I am setting letter after letter into a small box near my heart. With each completed word, I close the lid for a bit, let the new one rest, mix with the other promises already packed away.
But words in combination are volatile as dynamite, and the more I set inside, the harder it is to hold them from bursting forth.
I have emptied my pockets of flint and matches. I hold my breath as I place a new batch of letters. But there is no question about it—these are dangerous times.
The sun crested the office building across the street and lit the rain drop by drop until rainbows appeared on the horizon. She could not keep from turning to look out her office window, high above the city, because sometimes there are things that are more important, sometimes the weather is all the indicator anyone needs of changes to come, sometimes the beautiful cannot be ignored.
For weeks, I have barely attended the conversations around me. I know how to arrange my face, focus my eyes just enough, make appropriate but noncommittal phrases when necessary, but voices chatter like birds, like static, like the hiss of traffic going by outside my window.
I am here, I am several elsewheres. I am now, I am then, I am already ahead of myself. Leave a message, please, and I will return your call when I get away from where I’ve been–when I get where I’m going.
There are times to hedge bets, and times to retreat from a bad hand, and sometimes the bust happens on the first deal, and sometimes late in the night, which looks just the same as day on the everlit casino floor.
But the house doesn’t win every single time, and on this particular night, as she pushed in all her chips and waited for the cards to turn, she felt the world tilt just slightly. No one else seemed to notice, but she was certain it was a sign the odds had shifted, finally, in her favor.
100 Proof 