fifty-four : dark shines
The change in road surface is audible as she takes the off ramp to the airport. Cold air blows in through the vents, though she is certain she closed them, and she wonders why his hand isn’t in its usual place, resting on her knee. She glances at him from the corner of her eye and adjusts her grip on the steering wheel. He is staring out the window.
At the airport, she opens the back door as he lifts out the luggage. She walks beside him through the terminal, suddenly aware of the finality of the word. She shakes it off. At the news stand he turns to her and asks if she has any change. They are the second last words she hears from him. The last are a few minutes later. A simple bye. No words to suggest he is coming back, though on the drive over she felt sure of that anyway. She didn’t know what she was expecting. Not an admission, of course not, but something. He gives her nothing. Not even a kiss. He walks away, through the gates, away.
By the time his plane takes off, she is sitting back in the drivers seat. Music blares, drowning out the sounds of traffic and aircraft but not of her thoughts.
Tonight I wrote while being painfully aware of the fact that I need to get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning, and listening to my favourite Muse album, Origin of Symmetry. I would write more, but as I said, early day tomorrow. Oh, how I look forward to the day when I no longer have to have a day job. A girl can dream.
