only

+ where +

    some town somewhere.

    the houses were close together, the stores in walking distance. the children on scooters in the street, the stray cats keeping away from them. the mailman friendly, the students a cruel opposite. the kind of place where everyone awaited the ringing bell and the ticks of the clock drove them crazy.

    closer in, there's a house. it was brown and small and falling apart. it had the kind of path no one dared to walk up on halloween and the kind of door no one dared to knock on.

    for me, it was the house across the street from hers. i was just some feet away and i sat day after day, staring at the dark windows.

     i did this because i notice things.

     i noticed that she had a face of porcelain and it shattered as she neared her home. i noticed how it was always so quiet, too quiet. i noticed how in the afternoons, she rush down the path with only a call of good bye behind her.

    but i only sat.

    i only noticed.

    and isn't that, in itself, more horrific than even the origional crime?