Only No Sun: Part III

A dark space,

a void in which

angry thoughts,

empty hopeless thoughts,

fill and become.

The shadow rose

from the depths of the room

and stole away

the heart of love,

the binding flame.

Swept gone with the passing wind.

“Did you see Jen leave?”

“Who?”

“Jen- my wife.”

“Oh yeah, her. She left about an hour ago. Took the car.”

“Did she say where she was going?”

The pharmacist picked up the folded note from behind the register and handed it to David.

“She left this.”

 

Scribbled:

I can’t do this anymore. I love you. Goodbye.

 

And the seal of a kiss.

“I knew she was embarrassed by our problems. But this?”

He folded the letter back, tending to its creases.

“I never expected this.”

 

The bottles had piled to exhaustion on the countertop.

The door read Closed.

David and the pharmacist sat in plastic lawn chairs, leaning against the stocked aisles.

“Well, I might as well kill myself. My life is meaningless without her.”

“Maybe that’s true.”

David thought about this.

“You ever wonder if eternal life is obtainable, David? I do, every second of every day. There are entire Hindu sects devoted to attaining immortality.”

He got up out of his seat.

“The Apaches believed that if you ate the heart of a great warrior that you would gain his courage.”

He walked behind David.

“That’s all very interesting. But…what does it have to do with-?”

“You want to know what I believe?”

“Su-”

“I believe that science will provide answers. They won’t understand. But I’ll show them, I’ll make them learn. No one will have to die.”

The bells above the door jingled. A police officer stood in the flashing of red blue lights; a nuclear glow, radiating from outside into the shop.

TO BE CONTINUED…