PREFACE
The man entered the dark, wet alley and approached a figure that had stepped out from behind a tall garbage can. The figure was in a dark cloak with the hood up, clutching something to its chest and bending at the waist slightly, making sure that the rain didn't hit any inch of it. He looked around and came up to the figure, looking at it with wary eyes. The figure didn't remove its hood, just simply handed the thing it was clutching to the man. Without a word, the man took to object swiftly. Then the figure handed the man a braided basket, which he also took. The figure looked up at the man and he looked down into the ice blue eyes of the woman under the cloak. With tears that looked like shining diamonds streaming down her cheeks, her eyes glistened. They were such a pale blue that anyone would think that she was blind. Her light skinned looked darker with the shadow on her face that the cloak was producing. The man lifted the hand with the basket in it to the woman's face and wiped one of the tears away that was making its way down her cheekbone. With a light kiss on the woman's forehead, the woman's tears began to flow more quickly. She threw her arms around his waist and pulled herself into him, clutching at him roughly. Shifting the object and basket into just one arm, the man wrapped his free arm around the woman's frail shoulders, not wanting the moment to end. He quickly let go, and looked around to make sure that no one was witnessing the scene. He looked back down at the woman, who refused to meet his eyes and was staring at the ground as tears hit the puddle beneath her. The man turned and walked away.
"Eu te amo." The woman said quietly in her Portuguese accent.
The man turned back around, ready to tell her "Eu amo você com todo o meu coração", but she was already walking away. So the man whispered it as he turned back around, hoping that the wind would carry it to her.
He hadn't said anything like this to her, even though he meant it with every last thing in him, which made him regret this moment more. It was just that this time, it seemed that it would be the last. The last time to actually express this to her so he put every emotion he had for her in his voice as he said it. This would be last moment that they would see each other again in their lives. Except in death, but that may be coming for them quicker than it should, and they both knew this. Which is why they had to take care of this one thing before it was too late.
He listened intently to the sound of her heels clicking on the concrete of the alley as she walked a couple feet then the slight whooshing sound as she vanished. He looked back, the tears finally catching up to his own eyes, as he saw the swirl of leaves that the breeze of her absence created, then trudged away.
He started picking up speed when the reality of the moment hit him. Walking as fast as he could without being to obvious, the man headed to the wealthiest area in the neighborhood. Walking under the streetlights in the dawn of the night, he glanced around frantically, making sure that he wasn't being followed. There were multiple houses on the block that the woman and he decided to leave the object on. It was up to him to pick which house he thought would suit the object best, since he lived in this demension. The man had tried to explain to her that he didn't want to do something so important without her help, but she only replied with a simple, "You must."
He looked each house up and down. Counting all the rooms in each house that he could see from the outside. He also tried to guess the prices of the houses. Seeing which one was more expensive. Which family would have more money? How many seats were in the cars that were parked in the driveways? What year the cars were.
He walked up to a certain car that was in the driveway of a very tall house.-The family that lived there were new and young. They had two children, one was a year old, and the other was just a month. The young couple had made a fuss in the neighborhood when they moved in. Everyone was talking about the trophy wife and father that was a very talented doctor. Mrs. and Dr. Damon. They had a son and a daughter, such a cliché for a family. - Cupping a hand around his eyes, and leaning them against the car window, he saw the baby car seats and a couple chew toys in the seats in front of the baby car seat. Then, glancing up at the tan house, he saw how they had modified it to look more modern, but kept the roman pillars, and the intricate designs on them. The huge dark wood door was the same, and it had a knocker that was the size of the man's head. The house had a design of dark brown diagonal lines all around the top. The second floor had a huge, white balcony all around the perimeter of the house. There were multiple cherry trees in the front yard; they looked beautiful with the flowers surrounding the fruit on the tree. In front of the house were various types of flowers planted around the front of the house. There were orchids, all the different colored tulips, roses, and lilies; there were lilacs, daffodils, daises, violets, and irises. There was also a titanic oak tree in the front yard that had a wooden swing connected to it by two thick ropes. The man clutched the object closer to his chest, trying to give it as much of his body heat as possible, tugged at his jacket, trying to get as much of it as he could around the object.
