beach, and be amused of how little time it takes for the tide to sweep away the two sets of footprints that once lined its shore.
Some say it is wise, born from practice of pushing rafts out into the sea, but I have seen people with lot more experience than me still becoming drunk on sorrow. The difference between them and me was that unlike them I knew the answer to the question of“ if” s.“ IF I have not met her there”,“ IF I have given her this at that time”,“ IF I have said this instead”, IF this, IF that. The answer was that it would’ ve made all the differences that would accumulate to none. She might’ ve met another person, she might’ ve stayed a week longer, but the result would be the same. The tide of time will irresistibly come and go, leaving you with only what you had before. The more you received, the more you will weep away into the nights afterwards, until you’ re back to square one.
She moved against my chest.“ It’ s getting cold” she meowed.
“ It is.” I kissed her soft round forehead, and slowly led her back inside. Back, back inside to what she called“ love,” words dropping out from the mouth like empty cartridges from a shotgun. I cradled her body, feeling the rounds lodged inside her heart clinking with each other. I pressed her closer, wrapping myself around her as the wind picked up, feeling it all the more acutely through the hole in my chest. Behind us, the bruised corpse faded away into nothingness.
The city sky was too bright for stars.
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