Amaranth

5

        "Open your eyes and look around you! Can’t you see?"

        "See what?"

        "There are dead people everywhere and you can't do a thing about it! You can't bring them back! You can't be friends with them! They can't even hear you!"

        She shook her head. "I don't understand."

        "Of course you don't." He heaved. His hair was in disarray. It wasn't known whether it was due to the windy day or the endless frustration of being around her as his hand reached up and raked it once more. "You don't understand anything! Can't you see that they're not coming back? Whoever you sit around waiting for!" He was shouting all these things at her, but in reality, they all ended back at his feet.

        "I'm not waiting for anyone." She meant to say that she stopped waiting because he was already here.

        "Then why are you here?"

        "I don't have anywhere else to go," she finally admitted.

        "Nowhere to go? Where did you come from?"

        She shrugged.

        "You don't know? Or you don't remember?"

        "I don't know. Both, I guess." She wasn't helping his patience much at all.

        "Where would you like to go? I'll help you get there. Just name a place." Any place but here, he wanted to say, so she could leave him alone.

        "I don't know any places."

        "You don't have anywhere you would like to go?"

        She shrugged. He sighed.

        "Look, I gotta go. Do whatever you want." He stood up. He was through caring though he wasn't sure why he cared in the first place.

        She rocked on her feet, looking lost as soon as he turned his back on her.  

        "Where are you going?" There was that light and innocent voice she used that he couldn't stand anymore.

        "Away from you." What she heard was: away from here.

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November 10, 2014