The Hard Bounce

Coda

I opened the door to the office one Saturday afternoon. On the floor sat a folder with my name on it, slid under the door. No other markings on the front.

I knew what it was.

Still wasn’t sure that I wanted to see what was inside.

I opened it…

… just a bit…

… just a peek.

There was a picture of a woman on the lower left side. I forced my eyes to not look at it directly, squeezed them shut and looked up as I closed the folder.

She was a woman now. She’d made it that far. I swallowed hard. The lump that had swelled there didn’t want me to.

Sliding my thumb under the fold, I pushed the top page up just a bit.

Just a bit…

There was the name at the top.

Last name: Malone.

First name: Emily.

Middle name: Madeline.

I took a deep and shuddering breath as I realized that I’d forgotten her middle name.

I didn’t know her anymore.

She didn’t know me.

And for the life of me, I couldn’t come up with a good goddamn reason why she would want to.

I wiped moisture from under my eyes as I touched the flame of the Zippo under the corner of the folder. I watched it burn away, felt the flames touching my fingertips. I let the fire burn me, I let it hurt…

… just a bit…

… before I dropped it in the metal wastebasket.

Goodbye, Emily. Hope your life’s as good as I imagined-as good as I hope it has been. Shit, I hope it’s been even better than that.

Better than mine, baby girl.

Then the fucking fire alarm went off.