“Maybe” I told him “- it’s midwinter now, hopefully the frosty glitter on the freezing trees will last until January.”
“Have you seen the way it sparkles at night? How the glitter plays in the light from the lampposts?” He did not answer. “Hello?”
“Yes, yes I have seen it, a long time ago.”
“But don’t you want to see it again?”
“It’s already fading. The temperature will rise and everything will melt, fall to the ground and be sucked up by the trees and the leaves again.”
His monologue started in adagio and continued in presto, his words, pumping out of him, harder and harder.
“And the glitter will never last until January, don’t you see it?! The glitter never lasts. It does not matter how much we try, the glitter will never last. It will melt and so will we or at least everything that was ever us. And when it happens we will be lost and sucked up by the memories we created together – “ he paused, to look at me.
“You’re not talking about shimmering trees any longer.”
He looked guilty, and when he spoke again his tone was soft, as if he tried to sooth me before I even knew I had to be soothed.
“We can’t go on like this. The magic, or the glitter, or whatever you want to call it, is lost. We’ve lost it.”
He walked up and put his hands on my cheeks, kissing me, and those lips, those lips sparked memories from our three years together. Right there and then I was cut off, laying bleeding on the floor, torn apart from the only world I knew. A world I was not welcome in any longer.
When January came I saw he was right, my tears were the only things glittering in the light.
Josie Mattsson 