7 rings

Chapter 14

"I am slowly understanding everything I ever had in my life had to be changed. And it was. It's changing. I'm changing. My life is changing. It's all changing."

The sun was slowly coming down, being replaced by the night sky. From the balcony, Dominica Mallory could see the whole town, the beautiful river, the old houses, the tiny streets, the people passing by, some of them occasionally looking up and seeing her, some of them smiling. The population of the old town she and Evelyn were currently staying in was, in a big majority, consisted of very nice people, the street their small apartment was on being populated mostly by old people. Very early in the morning, most of them out on the street to buy bread for the day at the local bakery, then went back in, and, for an hour still, the town slept, the neighbourhood was silent and the streets desert, just like if no one lived in these houses, that, after this hour of silence, were full of life, people were always on the streets, the old ladies talked with each other, exchanging the news. Evelyn spent sometimes hours writing to people, in a successful attempt to leave it all behind to go live with her daughter in peace, like a normal, happy family. And Dominica spent a lot of time painting on the balcony just like she was now. Mallory had just rediscovered her hidden love for art, walking around museums or just admiring the streets of the small old town, then, in the evening or early in the morning, painted whatever came to her mind, fueled by the inspiration she saw all around her, all day, every day, now that her vision of the world was completely changed.

Just like if nothing had ever happened before that. Just like she had always lived like this, or simply had no memories of the past. It was lost somewhere or had just disappeared. Having bought a canvas for very cheap that day, she was standing on the balcony, watching the sun coming down, the people in the restaurants and bars, the lights of the city and painting the street underneath her. She had learned to paint when she was in school, living with a foster family after foster family, to relax and feel happier, was pretty good at it, and then simply forgot about it, being pleasantly surprised seeing that she could still do it a little bit.

Drawing the people, the street, the lights, Dominica didn't realize how fast the time had passed, and, when she knew it, the last of people were going home from the bars and restaurants. It was dark outside, Evelyn was still sitting on the small sofa in the living room, watching a movie on her computer, she left the canvas outside to dry, very happy with how the painting turned out and how she was able to really represent how she felt that night, turned off and took back inside a lamp she had brought to see what she was doing and closed the tall window.

Characters talking in the movie, candles burning on the table. Mallory mother and daughter had been renting the small apartment in the centre of the old town for a couple of weeks now. It had a living room that shared its space with the small kitchen, a room, a bathroom and a balcony. Nothing more, nothing less, but they were completely fine with it. Evelyn was quickly closing the business, Dominica left it all to the girls with a simple text message on the first day with an internet connection, blocking them all afterwards, just to forget her old life as quickly as possible.

"I leave it all to you. Do whatever you want to. The moments we had together were amazing. Farewell."

She and Evelyn were together just like if nothing had ever happened, just like if all these years between now and that night weren't there. Just like there had always been only the two of them, like there was never a third one, like there was never years and years of not seeing each other at all.

"Thank you, Kottmeyer", she thought, a couple of weeks ago. Now there was no Philomena Kottmeyer, there was nothing that could remind her of the past. Just the present moment and hundreds of millions of other moments left to live. Just like if nothing had ever happened.