CHAPTER 16

© 2010 GREG DUNAJ

16.

              Perhaps it was the rainwater trickling down the window pane in the kitchen. She curiously eyed the tributaries of water that coursed the glass, watched them gather and well on the sill to then drip away toward the ground.

              It might have been the way the neighbor’s cat ran frantically across her patio to hide under a chair, annoyingly flicking it’s paws as it scurried.

              Or, perhaps it was the plunking sound raindrops made as they landed in a gardening water bucket on the patio that made her feel so sad. The rain drops exploded into one hundred thousand shards of droplets when they landed, as though one hundred thousand voices and fears again rose up to breathe.

              Plunk! went a drop, filling the air with its misty, fearful sentiments. Plunk! went another. The sound reverberated through the house, shaking the otherwise silent, empty house. The abandoned house. Plink! The kitchen window shook and knocked little knickknacks from the window sill. They clattered into the sink.

              Plunk! Plunk! PLUNK! The raindrops suddenly thudded across the roof with the heavy leaden step of some stalking, mythical beast. She turned her head to follow its tracks. She heard the eaves of the house creak. The beast was trying to tear off the roof. She sank to the kitchen floor, her knees drawn to her chest.

              Plink! Went a tear, into her coffee. Let it come, she said to herself. She was no longer afraid. Let it come and take her away. Away from this empty house, this empty heart, this empty marriage.

              But then, Amanda stirred. She heard her toddler upstairs. The faint rustle, the slight moan. She made the beast go away. She pushed it back again into her deep well of despair. It disappeared again into that hidden place she kept apart from everyone else, from family and friends. She wiped her eyes and stood. Soon, she thought. Soon she’ll let the beast rip open the house, but not now.           

              Amanda began to fuss. She needed her mom and Kris put down her coffee and went upstairs.