Shadows

by Michael Akerib






The sun was rising – just another day, like so many that had gone by. She did not want to get out of bed. She preferred to continue lying and looking at the pattern on the curtains and feeling happy to be back home.

It was good to feel happy again – it had not happened for some time.

‘Come closer, Noy. Come closer.’

She did not move.

The silk sheets felt warm against her skin and she did not want to move from fear the feeling of warmth might disappear. The man next to her was kissing her right hand.

‘I love your warm body,’ he said. ‘It is so nice to be next to you.’

‘Really?’ Her words came out painfully. If she articulated better it would wake her up.

‘You are everything I have always wanted,’ he said vehemently.

He was now licking the top of her arm, following the line left by the shadow of the curtain.

‘You do?’ she asked sleepily. She wondered briefly why he did not understand that his futile talk would simply wake her up. Useless, futile words.

‘I want you to be mine forever,’ he was saying now. Forever, another empty word, she thought.

‘Humm.’

‘I do,’ he replied. ‘I am ready to do anything to have you for ever, Noy. Come into my arms. Come into my protective arms.’

‘Protect from what?’ she managed to say.

‘From harm, from the big wide world,’ he said with great conviction. ‘I will be your father, your lover, your friend. I want to make love to you again. Now.’

‘Are you listening to me?’ he said after a while.

‘Leave me alone!’

‘No, I will not. And please shut up and let me sleep.’

‘OK, if that is what you want.’

‘I do. I do very much. You can see I am still sleepy.’

‘OK, OK.’

But he continued talking. Then he got up and sat in an armchair, smoking a cigarette. And another one.

After which he pulled the curtains.

‘Shadows. You like shadows. Don’t you?’

He was standing in front of the window, looking at her. He felt terribly bored.

‘Won’t even bother to answer me, right? You cast a spell on me and now you won’t even talk to me. I should be angry with you.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘Shadows,’ he said. ‘Shadows on your skin. They look like flowers. I have been watching one of the flowers growing. It will soon cover your entire body.’

‘Shadows,’ she said. She opened her eyes, threw away the blanket and looked at her skin. ‘It is not a flower.’

‘It is, you know. A giant flower.’

‘Leave me alone. Just go.’

‘No, I will not.’

He sat again and watched until the flower devoured Noy’s entire body.