Gentle Hands V

summer was her favorite season, now she

doesn't have a favorite anything, but summer was, and

summer was warm and alive the cattails were itchy, and

the kittens rolling. Her porch was her favorite place to

sit in the summer, to watch the neighbors go by, to think

about the way birds fly, and old men cry, to think about

her future, and her future's past. The chair told her it

would be a cold night, so she went in the house to leave.

They didn't know each other, and they loved each other.

Long light distracted them as they listened to their

heartbeats or breath. This wasn't the way it was

supposed to happen, this was the way it was meant and

dreamt to happen, but nothing could touch her gentle

hands without a shudder. There was something, something

missing maybe, or something extra. Sometimes she seemed

to be both closer to death beyond and past life to more

than