A Book
It occurred to her, in the early morning hours, that perhaps the most unexplainable situation was the most possible. She got up and wrote her epiphany in her journal. As her head went back down upon the pillow, her mind reminded her that it was entirely possible then, that Jack had indeed killed the man and was just pretending that he didn’t. It was just a hunch, but she was sure he was guilty. She whisked off the covers again and wrote this new thought down. Then she thought angrily that if she continued like this through the night, she would never get any sleep and she needed to sleep if she was going to get to the bottom of the case.
It was only a silly little book, but it kept her thinking throughout the day. She relished every page of the one thousand leafed wonder, but her obsession of figuring out its puzzle was making her tired. She wanted to know the answer, but every chapter she read brought her back to square one. She hated and loved the book at the same time. It was enjoyable, but it was driving her crazy, keeping her up, and ostracizing her from any social activities she might have been doing. Her life slipped away from her until one rainy evening when she had flipped the final page of the book.
She had been wrong, of course, Jack didn’t do it—his wife did—but it wasn’t finding out that she was wrong that disappointed her. The book was finally finished and the marathon-like climax and resolution had left her wasted and empty. She had nothing to keep her occupied and her mind rewound the last scenes in a flurry of fleeting memories. She tried to hold on to the mystery, but once read the book had no secrets and became meaningless.
She stood up, but not having anything else to do, she sat down again. The phone rang and she picked it up, favoring the human voice on the other end.
“Shall we go to tea tomorrow?” her friend said cheerfully.
“Yes.”
This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 9:08 pm and is filed under Fiction Prose, Paradise Lost, Realistic Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.