The Water's Edge

The pool hadn't been cleaned in weeks. A thick layer of algae slicked across the surface like an unspoken apology, the water murky and still. Elena sat on the edge, her legs dangling in, cooling skin that still burned from another argument with Richard.

Their marriage had become like the cable bill Richard forgot to pay—disconnected, static where there used to be signal, and she was tired of calling customer service.

Lightning cracked open the sky. She counted the seconds before thunder: one, two, three. The storm was still miles away, but something about the electricity in the air made the hair on her arms stand up. Or maybe that was just Richard's presence behind her, looming like a debt collector.

"You forgot Jacob's game again," she said, not turning around.

"I was working."

"He had his lucky hat on and everything. The one you gave him."

Richard sat beside her, close but not touching. In the distance, lightning illuminated the backyard—their backyard, with its garden she'd planted and the fence he'd never finished staining. A baseball from Jacob's last hit lay half-buried in the grass like a grave marker.

"I'm sorry," Richard said. The words sounded rusty, unused. "I know I've been... elsewhere."

"Where is elsewhere, Richard? Because it sure as hell isn't here with us."

The wind picked up, ruffling the pool's surface into nervous ripples. Elena thought about the years she'd spent waiting—not for big gestures, but for small ones. A remembered anniversary. A question about her day. A hand on her shoulder that didn't want something in return.

Another lightning strike, closer this time. The storm was almost upon them.

"I keep thinking about that couple we knew," she said quietly. "The ones who divorced? She said she didn't leave because she stopped loving him. She left because she forgot what it felt like to be seen."

Richard turned to her then, and in the flash of lightning, she saw something break in his expression— recognition, perhaps, or the terrible weight of understanding.

The first raindrop hit the pool's surface, sending out perfect circles that expanded and collided, mapping the distance between them.