Pretty to Think So

They never had a chance to talk before the raid. The cops came through the front door, and those who were quick enough got out the back and scattered into the night. She was one of the lucky ones, or so some might consider. She didn't. She'd searched in the dark for him, hoping somehow the glow would reveal him, the glow she'd felt that single time their eyes had met, an intimate glow that promised everything she'd ever imagined wanting in life.

She never really gave up the search. He must have been among those arrested. She'd never gotten his name, never saw him again.

And now, in her hospital bed, awaiting test results she'd been dreading for months, she strains to justify a lifetime of ambiguous satisfactions, the series of jobs, the someone else, family...a heart never quite able to give up a certain yearning,

A doctor studies an x-ray print at the foot of her bed, his hesitant poise casting a grim shadow over the room. The shadow melts into a nearly forgotten glow when he looks up.