The girl in the Shadows

This story was published in "The Journal" but I was encouraged to place it under my "Alone" project as it will be a better fit. No need to Vote or Comment if this is not new to you. Thanks for you support!

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Wild Strawberries songs played. He played them all the time. Life sized Marilyn Monroe, Bet you think I'm lonely, Crying shame and others I can't quite remember at this time.

The songs came up through the floor and echoed throughout our kitchen and across the living room. They echoed all weekend long. So much so that I now find those songs undesirable, over exposure I suppose.

Friday 10:35 pm

Banging on the wall, the same banging on the wall. No, banging against the wall. Minutes later there were flashing lights at the end of our driveway. Two officers from one of the patrol cars briskly walked up towards the house. Then headed in the direction of the entrance to the basement apartment.

Minutes before the officers blazed up the street with flashing lights and sirens on and off for split seconds at a time. The 911 operator asked me. "Do you want to give your name?" I didn't hesitate.

Each weekend she walked up the driveway under the shadows cased by the pine trees along the left edge of the driveway. I never saw her face, I didn't know her name. But I knew her voice and the sound her body made against the wall in the apartment below. It echoed in our kitchen and across the living room. It echoed against the background of the songs of the Wild Strawberries, Friday through to Sunday night.

But that was before the officers came.

Minutes after they came, I gazed from the window in our living room at the lights, still flashing at the end of the driveway. They served as the backdrop for the man in handcuffs who played Wild Strawberries songs very loud to muffle the cry of a desperate young woman. She was escorted to the second car.

Later, whenever the days turned to the darkest shade of gray and the street lights cased shadows of the pine trees along the edge of the driveway. I was assured that there would be no banging against the wall with the body of the girl who walked in the shadows.

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- Thomas - © Nov 15, 2014