LXXXI | Something From The Past

❦

Everyone
has secrets, Fifi.

You're not

the only one.

Everyone
is sick in some way.

You're not

the only one.

❦

We were bathed in sunlight.

It shone down
like a spotlight

and reflected off
colourful concrete bricks

in a decorative pattern.

I sat.

Crosslegged,
studying.

Tammie, her scruffy hair
shorter than it is now,

rested her head in my lap—

like I am
in hers now.

She squinted her eyes

against
the sun

but they didn't close all the way.

'I want to look at you,'
she said.

I told her
there was nothing to see.

'I'm studying.
'you should too.'

She giggled.

She smiled.

That apologetic smile.

I told her
her school uniform

would get dirty

if she lay down
like that.

Her irises were dark,
her lashes long.

Even washed out by the sun,

I thought she was beautiful.

I never thought
of people

as attractive or ugly

before I knew her.

Everyone
was part of the conspiracy.

[Read the full story at novelconbini.com!]