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The Widow

She sat on the bare cement floor, a little dust gathering up to welcome her arrival, her trademark black swishing with her every move; a picture of grief, her big beautiful eyes were swollen and red, almost squeezed shut.

They say when you’re about to lose someone you love, you feel a premonition. The skin on your arms rise up and goosebumps form a procession on your skin.

The hairs at the back of your neck stand up and you start shaking uncontrollably. You record their voices, hold your memories tighter to yourself and rush to create new ones while your head refuses to accept the reality you know to be true.

But she didn’t feel any of that!

She only slept and woke up and Obim was gone like a stranger in his sleep. No last words, no lingering touch. This hurt more than a needle piercing her nails.

Hollow was one thing that described her now. She wanted badly to wake him up and ask why he left without notice. Was her offense so great that she didn’t even deserve a goodbye sigh or a last embrace?

The pain in her chest closed in and she fell to the ground in deep anguish, holding her heart as deep racking sobs shook her body.

Everybody makes plans without thoughts for tomorrow. He was supposed to take her down the well-worn path that he proposed to her first in and showed her the souvenirs he kept for their tenth anniversary right in the very cottage their bodies first knew each other’s languages.

She let out a wild laughter into the air, her eyes wild with grief, her hair singing the hallelujah chorus.

The sky looked bluer today and the sun it seemed was mocking her distress for it shined its wicked rays right through her doorstep, kissing her feet. What was the dark shadow she saw by the wall? He had the physique of a man and he stretched out a hand to her. A dark shadow of a tear dropping down … down … She felt the wetness on her palms, could it be…?

She closed her eyes and let the memories wash over her like a current and felt the cold fingers of his hands.

Tomorrow her in-laws will come. Today was for her and Obim.

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