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A Hot Summer's Night continued. I see all of this now, as if from afar. Oh! How I wish I could have only been an observer then, like watching a movie when you want to yell at the screen 'Look out!', but the main character is still heading towards impending peril. There is already a crowd surrounding the car as I get to the corner. Someone is kneeling over someone else, who is lying still, on the ground. Pushing my way through the crowd, I kneel down as well. Her eyes are glazing over. I know what is happening, I have seen it before. Blood is everywhere but I don't care. I stare into those eyes; those searching, piercing eyes, so full of life only minutes before, so full of promise and so full of a future. Taking her hand I lean close to her ear. I manage to get out "I love your eyes." Strength, that is what she needs. I feel myself willing my energy into her hands. I want her to live. I want to have dinner with her. I see my life flash before my eyes, as she is dying. I see the future as it should have been. I see us together; the honeymoon, the house, the children, the old age. I see this as the light fades from her eyes. Go in peace! I didn't attend the funeral. I wanted to, but I didn't. Denial? Maybe. Okay, yes it was! That was all a while ago. They say time heals wounds slowly, and some never heal at all, I think. I don't really go to the coffeehouse anymore: once a year perhaps, on one particular hot summer afternoon. I sit in my corner with my book, a tiny scrap of paper holding my place in it. I sit and drink my coffee, looking at everyone coming through that door. I leave before night falls though!
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