Excellent story, Terry. You weave this tale with a poet's heart. (As my hubby will tell you, I think the best poets are men
)
My favorite parts haven't been quoted, yet, so...
I'm trying to find just a line here and a line there to quote, but it's too much. ...So I'll just 'xplain. I love the stream of consciousness intro. It's nice to see her thoughts about Lois as she flits from happy memory to happy memory. She clips Lois' article, and then feels she has to justify it to herself--even just a little bit. The progression from happy memories to the bone-jarring ones is not only plausible, but feels just as natural as if I had thought those thoughts today.
She was abruptly seized by an irrational and perverse need to make sure that Trask was actually gone, that the coroner’s van had really hauled the body away, that he wasn’t lurking just below the surface with a green meteorite in one hand and a pistol in the other –
Stop it! she chided herself. The man is dead! You saw him take a bullet and slide out of sight in the pond! You watched them load his body in the ambulance and take him away!
Still, she reasoned to herself, it wouldn’t hurt to double-check. Just to be certain.
That's the way it is with fear. Your mind and your heart battle each other until the unrational seems rational.
Well written story, Terry.
Elisabeth
