A sinister wind gushed through this sea-side town. Folks were still asleep. Hazy lamp-posts, only witnesses to this stranger’s arrival, shook in surprise. These old guardians of this peaceful town had no recollection of a wind so strong, so cold.
Mary was fidgety all night long. After her husband’s disappearance this time last summer, she had not been able to get a good night sleep. Earlier tonight, as she tucked herself to bed, she felt unease. She had already done her bed-time prayer and had asked God for the return of her love, but somehow that hadn’t calm her. She pushed a pill down and waited for her body and mind to go numb. Many twists and turns later, right before dawn raped the day, she got jolted into full consciousness.
There he stood, right by the window pane, where she kept her prayer candles and a rosary. He looked unusually pale, even for that time of the morning. He still had the same clothes he was wearing when she saw him last. His stiff body was accentuating his stern look.
Mary’s breath got frozen in her lungs. Two droplets of tear slowly crawled out of her wrinkled eyes on to her cheeks.
His lips weren’t moving, but she heard him say softly: “It’s time.” And after a long uncomfortable and perplexing silence, she heard him say: “You’ve waited long enough. It’s time you joined me.” Those words released her breath and led the tears to land on her smiling lips.
With sun high in the sky, air stale and lamp-posts standing erect, Mary’s body was carried away.
His body was found in a distant town, where another wife, with a broken heart, had disjoint him.
Shawn
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