No Breathing and Phone Calls

_____There was a horrible nonchalance in everyone after that day. Pretending, just like everything else. Time had ended, standing still on the edge of the blinding lake with its hands clasped behind its back, pockets turned out. Dead fish jumped out of the water and couldn’t open their mouths enough to eat the flies that blackened the air.

_____The swing teetered back and forth of its own accord, as did everything these days. She only sat upon it and watched the flies tease the poor swimming skeletons. A stone sat seven minutes old, dim against the wretched lake. The lake made the air taste salty with its tears. Salt and the Sunday funnies wouldn’t remind her as they sit on the kitchen table. The stone wouldn’t make her think to cry for seven hours, then seven years. She pretended like the fish.