Pahn and Aiks are
watching TV
Pahn hears faintly
the sounds of the
garden gate the scrape
of shoes on
decomposed granite the crunch
of steps in pea
gravel
He
gets up from his seat
and looks outside Through the window he sees
someone
walk back to the corner of the yard
behind the Douglas
Fir trees
He thinks the person has gone there to urinate
Pahn goes to the
door and
says loudly
through the screen
“That’s not a
bathroom”
As the person
turns around he sees
that it is a young
dark-skinned woman
Pahn feels a
little bad now
that he
reprimanded her and
begins to consider why she
has come into his yard but
he still is
uneasy and locks the door
He sees her walk
back
to the west of the house toward the gate
He walks to the side window
to try to get a
better look
at her He looks
into the murky
darkness to the right
and then the left seeing nothing but
then she appears
in front of him
and seeing
him she swings
her
fist against the glass
He is afraid she
will break the window
and puts his hands
against the pane
again and again
anticipating where
her fists will land
She turns and disappears
In a moment he
sees her
swaying on a
swing in the front yard
looking back
occasionally
to see if he is
watching
He wants to go and
hug her
He wonders who she
is
and why she
is wandering about the neighborhood
in the middle of
the night
He feels that
something isn’t right
She gets off the
swing and
walks beyond his
view
Pahn goes out the
side door
and puts the lock on the gate thinking
he will chide
Daphnis
for having left it
off
Looking
over the gate
he sees the young woman
She has a
sweatshirt on now and a friend
is
standing on the sidewalk watching her
as
she wanders around in the street
weaving
and circling
and finally
lying down
on
the asphalt
in the middle of
the road
as
if feigning death or utter disregard
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