At the end of the road
unpaved parking
safety
tape
construction fences
Pahn and his family find their way
into the riparian forest
to the ruined resort
an arcing bridge
of cottages
undermined
and
tilting
in stages of decay
and
demolition
Trying the catwalk
unbalances the boards
sending
Pahn
into the
river
He emerges dry
and walks back to town
In the old commercial district
buildings dark
blue
green
brown
Piteuss drives by
parks
Pahn walks up to her car
She gets out
with her friend
who is short
dark
thin
looking out
from her curly hair
at Pahn
with curiosity
Pahn
wants to give
some
pleasant greeting
of
acknowledgement
But she
doesn’t look at him again
and
doesn’t smile
and so
he doesn’t feel
invited
to speak
Pahn follows them
not knowing why
trying to
think of a reason
noticing
all the while
how the path
to the river
has
changed
since the last flood…
…They are swimming now
Pahn is distracted
away from Piteuss and her friend
by a waterfall
Pahn walks back toward town
He
looks at the falls on a map
He follows
a road to a better view
There are cars parked
on an island
He doesn’t understand
how they have crossed
the narrow
channel
without getting stuck
When he swims out to the island
he finds they are all submerged
Approaching the side of the falls
he looks back
to
see Aiks
in an open corridor of stone
hanging herself
by a thin string
Pahn starts to cry
and tells her
She’s making a mistake
cuts her down
takes the string
off
her neck
and holds her
Then they
walk
along the rocks
at the base of the fall
where the water finds its ways
through the crevices
and grooves
among
swathes of flowers
and Aiks says
“They are pretty”
as if
she has awakened
to red
petals
from a grog
of her
anxiety
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