It was summer. Night. Lyllian and Michael sit on the back stoop of Sabrina’s house under the streetlights passing a lukewarm green bottle of Heineken between them.  Lyllian’s feet are bare and under Michael’s old faded blue jacket she wears only a red nightie. Her legs are white under the moon and she digs her toes into the damp grass at the edge of the patio. They are silent for the moment. The usual volatile back and forth stilled for a bit. Earlier they had made love. Fast and delirious. Lyllian’s mind is sluggish. Buried in her heart all the things she would say. But her voice catches.

“Wonder if Sabrina’s mom recycles?” she says. In response Michael hurls the bottle down the hill and it clumps to a stop in the neighbor’s rhododendron.

Michael turns and kisses her. Nothing more. Her mind now races. It feels as though something is ending but she is not sure what. “I always wanted to have your babies.” She does not comprehend what made her say this though she believes it. He smiles at her his eyes in shadow.

Next Chapter: Lyllian, April 2017, Seattle