WINDOW 6

Silence now, the house is empty – big decisions have been made – important; now she is refreshed and has found some peace. Good. Her dreams were full again. The man beside her slept comfortably close and in this way the new week had begun better than the last. Even so, fear still rattled around at the edges of her mind and tickled in the pit of her guts. She now felt she could deal with that however.

When the call for work came it roused her from slumber – she had been aware of a number of things (the silence in the house, as mentioned; the call of a Blackbird from the park; the long, distant rumble of traffic on the roads; and the beginnings of her inner calm, also mentioned) yet her eyes were closed and she was replaying an image of desire, the last vestige of her true dreams, enjoying it. There was a portion of beautiful, unblemished flesh, her flesh around her belly, close up; and there was the dry scent of summer, tall trees and a camping tent with its zip undone and the flaps pulled right open to allow air in. She was within, making love with a man she assumed to be the man beside her now. She opened her eyes, looked to the closed window, the blind drawn down pale; then to the man, the top of his head nestled into the crook of her shoulder. She smiled a warm, motherly smile and closed her eyes again. The perfect swatch of flesh reappeared. It was lightly tanned and it moved beautifully as she breathed deep. Over it, casting a shadow, came a man’s profile, vague yet sure of its direction. Next came his eyes and the line of his hair, what little there was of it.

She opened her eyes again in quick surprise and looked once more at the man beside her. His thick, dark mass of hair flopped over her skin and on to the pillow. Nowhere could she make out either the scalp beneath or signs of recession at his brow. She closed her eyes again and sought for that final moment of her dream. Looking for the stranger, trying to ascertain his identity. But it was all gone. Instead her unconscious fought her off, she was left with the swirling patterns of light behind her lids, and a sense of confused lust in her belly.

She didn’t know it then, but another decision had been made.