A force greater than herself drove Gin out of her house. Ale had fled with his Honda to the hospital a few minutes earlier.
As she waited for Ale's call about his father's condition, the only thing she could do was walk and take herself away from the scene she had just experienced.
The phone ring anchored her to the ground, again.
"He didn't make it," he said in a high-pitched voice.
Gin felt a hollow inside that made her feel the full force of gravity.
"I'm at the obituary. I don't want to leave him alone. I'm running around like an idiot."
She didn't want him to put up with death.
"He's unwatchable. His skin is blotchy."
She didn't ask for details out of respect. The unravelling of the body was a sensitive topic to deal with over the phone.
"I'll be waiting for you at home, babe."
Instead of going home and to fill those empty moments, Gin headed to the house of a close friend of hers, Paula. They were not prone to exchanging explicit gestures of affection, but they had known each other for enough years to make a break-in of that kind. They had a reserved style of friendship in which neither of them showed intrusiveness, but both knew when it was time to be close to each other. They had met one night through a mutual friend, one of the few times they were out clubbing, which was unusual for both of them. Gin had gotten drunk a few days after her father's death and Paula had offered - actually, she had been forced - to take her home.
As she walked through the streets of their small town to Paula's house, an odd sense of excitement she was ashamed of dominated her body. Gin was fully aware of what Ale was going through in that moment and would go through in the following months. As distressed as she was, there was a bright side. He would need her even more. They would build a bond based on shared grief.
She knew she wouldn't have received much detail from Ale. Just as she knew little about the Ale's father in life, she would know little about him in death. Gin had a deep feeling that Ale had kept a space for himself, an inviolable core to which she would never have access. It was a very deep layer of pain and lack, that nothing and no one could ever fill. Although Gin felt a sense of inviolability, she wanted to get where no one, not even Ale himself, would ever be able to go.
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Thin places | Dark romance
Romance*Work in progress* Have you ever wondered if you really love that person or if you're just addicted? The story of Geneva and Alexander starts in the past and will accompany them throughout their lives. Geneva is an empathetic, perfectionist and lov...
