Brick

"These are the days that rarely come," she said to me. "You know? It's not every day that I get to see you. You're either stuck at college or working or whatever...It's good to have you back."

As we sat together on the old, wooden swing on her front porch and watched as the cars passed us by in a way that seemed to slow down time, she scooted closer to me until our legs were touching. Then she grabbed hold of my hand and wove her fingers between mine, and I could feel our pulses beating out of time. The weather was beginning to settle into deep autumn. The leaves were changing, dying, and falling. The air seemed to slow everything down.

I took a sip of my water bottle that I had stuck between my legs, and then I turned my head to look at her. Her eyes seemed to no longer radiate. Her cheeks seemed to have lost complexion. Her hair seemed to fall dead across her shoulders. As we sat there in uncomfortable silence, she steadily pushed the swing back and forth. Eventually, she grew tired of neither of us talking, and she said, "So how's school going?"

"It's going, I guess. I do, however, enjoy my classes. In my literary theory class the professor brought up a good point as to that some resolutions to conflicts can not really be resolutions at all but just an interpretation."

"Hmm. I need to tell you something...It's important." She then stood up and stretched her legs while I still sat on the swing.

"What is it?"

"I'm pregnant..." She turned her head away from me, and when she turned back, her eyes were red while a tear trickled down her cheek. We both then stayed there in silence for a few moments before I spoke up to somehow give her a sense of reassurance.

"It'll be okay. Tomorrow I'll call in an appointment at the abortion clinic for you."

She gently wiped a tear from her eye, and then her voice began to choke up. "It's just...It's just that it's not that simple, Mark. I wish it was. But this is a child we're talking about. A child's life is at stake." She sat back down again, and then I stood up and walked away. The gentle breeze hit my skin, and I felt a shiver up my spine. I walked to my car and opened the door. "Mark!" I heard her exclaim. "Mark! Come back! Let me explain! Listen!" Then she rubbed her forehead with her thumb and middle finger. "Okay, fine. I'll get an abortion. I'll get a damned abortion! Are you happy now?"

I got into my car, put the key in the ignition, and drove off. For some unknown reason, fury fumigated inside of me like never before. On the way home, I was listening to Lithium, and "Brick" by Ben Folds Five came on. Then I saw that she was my brick, and I was the one that was drowning slowly. She was the brick that tied me to the ground, and I was going nowhere.