SHADOW

Every noon on my bike to visit Harvey, you see how it goes, we ran into each other on the bus, got off and went to his house. I knew it was a a terrible mistake, but I wanted the moment, that memory forever no matter what happened.

Yale my husband never found out but I had to pay the price of wondering about gossip. I needed Yale since I didn’t have a job and the more I saw Harvey the more I didn’t have time to work. What made things worse, Yale had that look of not knowing what was going on so I’d turn on the TV and hope he’d forget about talking.

Then came a night and every night followed the same way. It was at the end of dusk when a shadow appeared in the hallway and I could tell it was Harvey’s because it had turned up cuffs and only he wore those cuffs leftover from the fifties. I asked Yale if there was a spill in the hallway, maybe grease from the oil he was putting in the car and he said no he couldn’t see anything. After that I shut the door and the shadow disappeared. I wanted to tell Yale and I wanted him to say I love you no matter what. When Yale said he wanted air I said, it’s a bit breezy. When it’s dark and the breeze stops I’ll open it.