The Fifty Year Sword

other

          “youngens

                              “but that night

Chintana saw no sign of any more.

    “Maybe the incresiating cold

                                             “or the

peculiar threat of a storm

                                            “or Belinda

Kite’s birthday

                      “had turned parents

from wrestling with seat belts and car

seats—

           “—from those oh so

                                            “many lists

of baby sitters tacked conveniently by a

phone.

    “Chintana rubbed the violet line

on her thumb as a woman with topaz

clamped on her ears burst past her

towards a small bathroom tucked

under the main stairs.

    “ ‘Such a hateful whore,’ the woman

sputstuttersobbed to Chintana,

                                             “to no one

in particular,

                   “diving for the comforts of

lock and running water.

    “Whereupon Chintana’s thumb

abruptly began to sore a little

                                         “and she

felt bleak,

                “as if a thousand

                                       “vengeances

upon vengeances were dicing her

suddenly

               “into hail.

    “Though the cause was none too

mysterous

                 “—the front door just stood

wide open.

                          “Though when it had

been flung so Chintana would never

remember.

    “The porch lights were extinguished

too, oddly,

               “and what’s more a shadow

now cut across the threshold,

                                            “though

without moon or stars in the Texas sky

this was an awful impossibility,

                                               “for here

reaching towards her it seemed was a

shadow cast by nothing

                                        “other

                                                   “than

the darkness itself.

    “Most would’ve denied the sight with

a turn,

                    “a cry,

                                             “flight,

“but maybe because Chintana too, day

out and night in, could so easily consider

doing the same,

                       “what would leave these

rooms drenched in silence,

                                       “and blood,

“she welcomed him.

“ ‘The orphans’

                        “was all he said.

“And Chintana showed him the way.