A lush tone poem by Sibelius played upon the phonograph as Darling sliced vegetables in the apartment kitchenette. The light of a hazy sunset filtered through the flag that hung in the window. She could feel the lush orchestration and soaring melody thrumming inside her.
“Darling, are you okay?” Milo asked from the door. She was standing at the counter, with peppers and onions on the cutting board and knife held loosely in her hand, but she wasn’t moving. “You seem distracted.”
“Yes, Milo” she said and then, “No, my love.”
“You are distracted,” Milo said. He said aside the drafts and drawings he carried and, stepping into the kitchen, relieved her of the knife.
She clenched her teeth and, looking silently about the room, shook her head. She saw her reflection in the window and again in the cracked mirror on the wall in the living room. “Not distracted,” she whispered.
“You’re shivering,” Milo said. “Cold too. What is it?”
“The death of so many. I could not. We couldn’t.”
Milo led her to the couch at the center of the living room. “Sit, Darling. Sit. Please. Let me get you something.”
“No,” she said clutching his arm. “I want nothing.” She looked into his eyes. “Just sit with me a while.”
He sat on the couch with her, and it was a comfort. To them both. A comfort to know that she belonged to him and he to her, in equal measure. They sat that way, together, until the sun was set and the room was dark.
"We don’t know what we’re doing, do we?” She said later, during dinner. Not really. Your art and my travel. And yet we cannot do nothing. How can these little motions stand against so many lives?”
“If we can save but one,” Milo said.
She’d fallen in love with him years before, slowly, over occasional conversations and walks to the market. He was patient. Always patient.
“One life,” he said again. “And one more.”
Gunshots erupted in the night – as they had most every night that month. These were not so close as some of the others. Perhaps at the train station down the street.
“One life,” she whispered back.
“And one more.”
I don't quite know who these two people are just yet - where they live, or what they're doing - but I've enjoyed finding them and expect that I'll see a bit more from them.
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