For a long while, I didn't know what I was doing. I had no idea how I got where I was. I had both hands planted firmly against the red bricks, white knuckled. And I was looking down over the edge.
There were a few screams at the time, whoever happened to be there. Behind me was a growing crowd. I was looking where everyone else was, but I wasn't sure what I should be looking at. The flowers in the garden, the tree and the benches around it, or the girl lying on the ground. It all stood out so vividly it was hard to pinpoint exactly what captured my attention. Perhaps that's how things tend to be, everything fighting for attention all at once, occupying as much of the human consciousness as possible, so that there would be the inability to come to any cohesive conclusions.
I wasn't sure who was lying at the bottom, but there was unmistakably a deep, dark shadow reaching out from within her, as if her soul was seeping through into the ground. As if it were evaporating from her body. Watching it happen gave me a tremendous sense of emptiness, like wrenching something out from within or opening a door only to find a hollow draft of air. It could have been me.
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Espresso Love: Fragments
Random[Spoiler alert] Supplementary bonus content for flagship literary fiction novel, "Espresso Love" in the form of short stories including prequel, sequel, memoir, alternate-universe, spin-off, collaborative and interactive fun! Please read Espresso Lo...
