For Thy Peace, My Soul

3.

Tabitha Earl Jennings. She bears a man’s middle name for her lost twin. Dead thirty minutes after their birth. I can still see his tiny arms waving like soggy stems after a flood.

Why couldn’t I save him?

Tabby’s twenty now. Wild at twenty. Wild as the brambles growing through the woods. Clutching and tearing at life. She’s living for two. She doesn’t say so, but I see it in her flat, jaded gaze. No need to speak to me; we both know.

Tabitha Earl. Tabby. Tab - E. For her little lost brother, she carries his middle name in his stead. I watch her from afar. Waiting for her to collect the full burden, if she’ll ever have it.