LOVE
Heat. Wet, oppressive heat; the
kind that fills the room, drips down the walls in winding yellow/green
rivulets to collect in steaming pools on warped floor boards. The
wallpaper, a once lovely concoction of violets and ribbons, bubbled and
peeling, bore stains of the same sickly hue; throw rugs, mismatched and
scattered at random on the bare wood floor, felt moist and sticky, and
smelled of furtive rot. From the furniture to the drapery, to the
food in the ancient refrigerator that never got quite cold enough, nothing
that crossed this threshold was left untainted. Although, at times,
the loamy odor could be quite pleasant, conjuring up visions of spring
mornings, new grass sparkling with dew, long walks in the woods at sunset………..damp
earth turned over on a fresh grave. Now, it was cloying and uncomfortable,
suffocating, draining the fresh air out of the room as completely as the
sweat poured out of his body.
A
roll of thunder shook the sky, followed by several lightening flashes that
barely cut through the gloom. Edgar stood before the open bedroom
window watching the low clouds swell and darken, almost as they did exactly
one year ago to the day, but out across the ocean, thousands of miles (and
a million heartbeats) away. Today was their anniversary and she was
leaving him alone, in this desolate house, with no one to ease his troubled
thoughts. A blast of wind, moist and heavy with the taste of burning
ozone, hit him full in the face. Soon the rain would begin again,
pounding hard into the already soggy earth. Edgar was used to consistently
wet weather, Britain being his native soil, but not this heat and the accompanying
lethargy; physically he felt like he was moving in slow motion, while mentally
his mind was racing at its usual manic pace, very disorientating.
Granted, she had endured a particularly bitter British winter with him,
he could survive a summer in—where were they? Somewhere in the southern
United States. Blue Mound? Yes, Blue Mound, North Carolina.
Perhaps she called the rain to soothe his anxiety in her absence, bring
him some familiarity from his home land in these alien surroundings.
Unfortunately, he already knew it was to soften
the ground.