Sleep alluded me again, so I wandered aimlessly around the streets of my hometown until I heard the wrought iron gate creak. The scraping groan startled me but like so many other times I entered the graveyard. That’s when I noticed the weeping willow swaying, but oddly, there was no wind. I studied random names as I strolled along the dew covered path. Why was a pair of brocade slippers lying beside a tipped wine glass and a briar pipe on a crumbled gravestone? I glanced up at the harvest moon gleaming boldly against the twinkling night sky.  If only the moon could talk. He might know why this one stone is broken when all of the surrounding ones aren’t.  I’m sure I would have noticed it before. I’ve been here many times because so many of my friends are buried in this cemetery. The closing years of our lives are like the end of a masquerade party when everyone tosses their masks aside and then gets laid here. A lone cricket chirped breaking the eerie silence. I knelt closer examining the lovely pattern on the slippers before uprighting the fragile wine glass. A fruity aroma wafted into the air. I spun around, but there was no one there.

The door stood ajar and you couldn’t help but take a peek.

The door stood ajar and I couldn’t help but take a peek. The frigid silence slaps my face like a blinding January blizzard. Usually, I can feel him, feel everything he thinks and does. We’re one in this universe at least I thought we were on this August day.
Her arms are wrapped snuggly around his neck in a lover’s embrace. Their bodies sway with every note. Our song plays in the background with every beat I want my feet to move but the floor clenches them in place tighter than any leather restraint he used on me when we played his fetish games. I shut my eyes but the image is still there. I try to clear my throat, anything to free myself from seeing him with my best friend. My knees tremble, the knocking loudly echoing in my ears, the sound more deafening than Niagara Falls.  Why can’t they hear or see me?
I tried to shake my head but I can’t. I try to raise my arms but I can’t. I’ve frozen like Frosty the snowman except I don’t have a scarf around my neck. The brisk air feels like shards of glass hitting my neck. The air swirls around my bare calves and lifts the dress chilling me to my core.
What is happening to me? To us? What us? Leonard and Sharon are together. They are lovers. How did I not see this?
I used to cherish every moment with him, every thought of him made my skin flush with anticipation. The mere idea, my longing for him filled me every waking thought. I never imagined a time without him until now.
A gust of wind shudders past my ear. I watch in horror as my lover and my best friend’s bodies explode apart blood spraying the lush blue floral rug. The same rug we made love upon so many times. Another ripple of air passes my head and his body rise and falls with the strike. I try to move again but can’t. His blood sprays all over my silky shins dripping into my sandals coating my feet. My screams freeze in mid-air.  I can see my words floating but there is no sound.
I watch him gurgle and gag. The blood oozes from his mouth, and then his chest collapses with one final heave. I hear a whimper and then another burst of air and her body jumps spraying blood across his body peppered with holes. I can’t see the lavender flower pattern on the rug anymore, only red spreading out. The sweet stench makes my nostrils flare and my stomach recoil but my feet remain locked in place. I twist and try to get my legs free but to no avail. I wrench with revulsion as my toes wiggle in the sticky wetness.
Oddly, An Eclipse of the Heart begins playing and I realize how dark it is outside. The sunlight has vanished completely. I had wanted to share the eclipse with him. It was to be a surprise because I ordered the glasses months ago just for this moment. Leonard and I on the balcony with glasses of wine talking. All my friends, co-workers were getting together with their families to watch this monumental moment in time. I think the next one is 2024, maybe, I dream we’d have our own family then. We’ve never talked about children before but I had hoped today we might
I never saw any indication that he was seeing my best friend. I feel like a fool, guess I was eclipsed in more ways than I expected. Sharon and I did everything together or so I thought we did.  How could I have been so blind?
I shiver feeling the stickiness clinging to my cold skin. I try to move my arms to adjust my dress. Why did I pick today to wear nothing under my silk dress? I screamed but the letters of every one of my frantic words float over the bodies dropping one at a time upon the blood saturated rug. The blood seeps into each letter as they lay upon the carpet.
I heard the elevator door buzzer chime and then I listened to the doors open but I can’t’ move to see if anyone was there. My eyes are the only thing I could move.  I see the sky lighten through the picture window. It was a gorgeous August day and the sun shone brightly in the room as if nothing had happened.  I struggle again trying to break free my invisible restraints. The clock strikes sharply four times.
“Hi honey, how was your day?”
Leonard reaches for my hand, he draws me in for an embrace. “Honey, your skin is like an icicle. Let me turn up the air conditioner and you slip into something warmer. I’ll put the water on for some tea. You’re going to catch a death of a cold.”
I didn’t move or say a thing. Leonard pulls me inside and closes the door. I glanced at the rug and the lovely powder blue with lavender flowers. It was spotless. There are no bodies, no blood, nothing. I raise my eyes and look Leonard over. I shiver, shake my head and leap for the bathroom.
He was wearing my favorite black dress pants and gray pinstripe shirt with his cuffs rolled back. Before today, when I saw him like this he looked so sexy to me with his bare toes peeking out from the cuffs of his pants.  Now, I just shake.
I look at myself in the mirror, I’m pale as a ghost and my teeth are chattering. What the hell? What the fuck just happened? Am I going crazy? I tell myself to catch my breath and get myself under control. I Inhale deeply trying to relax when I spot s familiar makeup bag lying on the counter. I notice the red marks all over my arms as I reach for the bag.
“Leonard Where’s Sharon?”

1002 w/c

denial is the river that waters my family tree