Light on Dark Water

between two worlds

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February 3, 2011 — Feast of St. Asgnar

A brief shower had come on rather suddenly, and the early autumn night was chilly enough that he did not wish to be wet. He stopped in a doorway and waited for the rain to diminish. He was in no hurry. At this hour there was no one about, and the streetlights caught the rain falling on the puddles in a bright mist. He turned away from the street and looked at the window displays: it was a clothing store, and the case to his right held a female mannequin, the case to the right a male. He inspected their blank faces and their fashionable clothes.

The rain passed quickly, and soon was no more than a drizzle and a mist. At the sound of footsteps he turned around. From a side street and down the broad avenue in the direction from which he had come, a figure emerged: a girl in a white raincoat and a white hat, stepping quickly and purposefully. He watched her as she came abreast of where he stood. She didn’t see him. She was not very tall, and she had thick dark hair that did not quite reach her shoulders, and the coat was pulled tight at the waist around her full and compact body. She had emerged onto the avenue in a dim stretch between the streetlights that were weakened by wartime economy measures. As she passed him, approaching a light, he stepped out of the shadows. At the sound she glanced over her shoulder, and there leapt up in him a longing that he knew would never be satisfied and would never die. Seeing him, she slowed, but did not stop, then turned and quickened her steps.