His hands had caressed her eager breast and all the time his eyes had asked her why. He was sad and pensive, offering her what had once been offered with a twinkling eye and a smile of delight. What had gone wrong? Where had they failed? Now her eyes filled, as she thought of the beauty they had shared. Swiftly she turned, and ran up the stairs to the two story frame house, gray now, where yesterday it had been white, old now, where yesterday it had been full of character.
Charging up the stairs two at a time, slipping on the top one and falling down three steps, biting her lip as she banged her leg against the stair’s edge, “hold it, Laura, for God’s sake what have you lost? He’s no great prize, he blew in from nowhere and you knew from the beginning he’d never settle here, you knew he’d blow right on out again, here one day and gone the next, what the hell have you lost? Security, forget it.
Laura sat down on the step, “how many girls have married the first guy they ever kissed? I’ll bet that if I’d thought of the chances I’d have, I never would have let myself start falling for the bum, Ralph, what the hell kind of a name is that anyway? Sounds like a supermarket, or a smurf or something. Oh hell, cut it kiddo” Wincing from the throbbing in her shinbone, Laura slowly rose and, turning, finished the remaining three steps in about as many minutes. By the time she had reached her room, she was almost laughing, half at the hurt she held within her breast, and half in defense against the tears she knew were waiting.
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