esent

bed in his room, fingers steepled in front of his face. The divorce papers sat

en glow of late afternoon sunlight filtering through the curtains. Outside, the neighborhood hummed with life-distant

ough there was that too. It was a deeper fatigue-the kind that sits in your chest and makes your breaths feel like the

her voice grated. Even the way she walk pass him-made his skin i

ears of slow erosion-snide remarks, forgotten birthdays, nights spent on opposite rooms-had worn

s settled from work. He'd walk over, say her name, hold out the

to be back from work, so he took the di

lled across the living room floor, catching the edge someone standing upstairs where Richard sta

nyone. Now she wasn't sure if he e

if they had. The silence had grown too wide, like a frozen lake between

he had t

tely climb

she called

little, as if she were

e his hand beh

wered,

owed. "Ca

pare her a moment and i

or her to hear it. That subtle si

o her room and she went

d him but

ost in thought on h

he sofa opposite

cing the envelop

thinner than he remembered, a patterned scalf wrapped around her neck . She

r lap. She had rehearsed this a dozen times in her head,

softly, her voice ba

unsure of ho

he had prepared evapo

hem thick with unspoken wor

n old wounds," she began, her g

omething I nee

oncern flickering acros

've been diagnosed with a terminal illness. And

've been diagnosed with a terminal illness. And

ered in the r

and the language she'd spoken. Richard was shocked, He paused, the words catchi

ern and hesitation fli

s without bitterness. Still, despite ever

anger fading a little, repl

and sat back in his chair like som

asked, bare

u," she said. "We haven't bee

t have anyo

, for disbelief, for him to walk away

led, slowly, like he was su

?" he fin

months. M

ut not cold this

oked at her for the first t

ly, if it really did tak

hat it was because

elling him this: that she won't bother him and she can't bring herself to tel

nt with the doctor the next day an

alized he left the divorce papers in her room. He hid them

st asleep, so he crawled to where the ch

der the chair and too

n and go out, Dera w

ting interested in her since he real

a word, as if somethi

outside. At the back of t