Lingering Over Language
The mornings he comes in, my heart beats faster but he doesn't know. I steam milk for his latte, watch him out of the corner of my eye where he stands at the counter reading his newspaper folded into a manageable square. I love that about him and I love how handsome he is, his overcoat impossibly black, not a speck of lint, his shoes shined, shirt starched. A small man with dark hair, he is beautiful, perfect, down to the shape of his head.
One morning he'll come in and my heart will beat faster and someone, maybe another customer or employee, will say something about my poetry, because sometimes people do, something funny or nice. Maybe they read a poem somewhere or they'll ask me how the writing's going, and he'll notice. I'll see his eyes move and change what they see.
And the next morning he'll come in and my heart will beat faster and I'll watch him out of the corner of my eye and see him watching me and I'll turn a little to look at him and he won't look away, won't even pretend he's not looking.
He'll pay in two crisp dollar bills like he always does and I'll reach out and put his change in front of him like I always do, the change he never takes. But this day he'll take it and put it back in my hand, carefully place the coins in my palm, press them lightly like a doctor taking a pulse, my heart fluttering, a tiny bird taking flight.
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Author's Note
Published in Doorknobs and BodyPaint. I don't remember exactly when. I wrote it in 2008 or 2009.
Other stories by Dianne McKnight-Warren
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Love in the Time of Corona. *****
Yes! Great comment.
So much packed in this piece, the power of small gestures. The movement from the real to the imagined, from present to future. And the anticipation of touch, that crucial crossing. Superb.
*
#like
;)
Thank you David! Made my day.
and thank you Christopher. Appreciate it.
Beautiful, silent feelings and wishes. Love this prose.
Very nice, Dianne! The details are powerful and magnetic.
Wow! Really beautiful.
Thank you Erika. Means a lot to me that you like it. Nice way of putting it too, the silence.
Thank you Todd. Thanks for "magnetic." No one's ever called my work that before. It's a good word! I'm going to make it part of my aesthetic, part of my focus, a new way of thinking about writing short.
Thank you Gary! Lovely comment. So generous.
Lovely work. The change of tense and the threefold repetition of the key phrase is very well done.
Thank you Eamon for your fine attention.
My heart will beat faster. That's so exciting.*
This is just perfect. *
Yes Tim. That first rush. It's been a long time since I felt that but I remember.
Thank you Jerry! What nice thing to say.
I meant, "What a nice thing to say." Not so perfect sometimes! :-)
Love this!! So beautifully wrought. Wonderful.
Yes, one of those peripheral episodes that do not or cannot go unnoticed and brings things into focus, rendered concisely in well-modulated prose.
Thank you Darryl. You, of course, set a fine example for me.
And you express all so well, Mr. Strannikov.
Nice work. Great sense of movement in it.
Thank you James! I admire your work as you know.
Three beats and nicely done. I don't like this fellow, but I could never exactly tell you why and it surely does not matter, nor does it detract from your story, but there it is.
Five stars, notwithstanding.
*****