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"This is Edith, I can't come to the phone right now but if you leave me your name and number, I will get back to you ASAP." The beep comes on cue, a  painful reminder that his Edith is no more. "Hey Edith, It's James. I just wanted to let you know that I love you and always will". They had had their highs and lows like any couple, but James hadn't expected things to end the way they had. It seemed like the flames of infatuation were smothered as soon as they began.

 Securely tucked away beneath his duvet, he felt the full extent of Edith's absence from his side. Never one to rise out of bed in haste, he laid their holding on to the cheerful lilt of her voice. The last time he had heard from her, she hadn't been in such high spirits. He contemplated staying in bed for another hour, but decided it best to go on with what the day and in store for him. It being well past sunrise, sunlight already saturated his cramped studio affronting his eyes. He went about his morning routine, brushing his teeth, showering, and preparing scrambled eggs with bacon. Edith had always enjoyed his cooking and he had enjoyed having someone to share with. Two weeks had already passed since the last time he had eaten breakfast with her, he remembered keenly how her dark eyes lit up when she tasted the banana pancakes. After washing up the kitchen, he headed back to his bedroom. He looked at the bed with the intention of making it, but he knew that ultimately he wouldn’t do it. Edith had always castigated him for this lazy habit, but had grown to accept it. She was prim and neat, always one to hold tidiness as a virtue above all others. This had often set them odds, but they had eventually accepted this yin yang balance of messiness to neatness as a part of their relationship. God, he missed that!

Stepping out of his studio to start the day was excruciating. He headed out to the office for the first time in two weeks. Those two weeks felt like an eternity to him, but upon his return to the building everything seemed to be as he left it. He expected his knick knacks and keyboard to be covered in the grime and dust of 100 years of disuse, but his desk was just as it had been upon his abrupt departure. The only odd thing hanging in the air was silence. Unusual for an office teeming with excitable extroverts. Before, he would have cherished any blessed moment of calm and this place, but today was different. The stillness today was unnatural and uneasy, forced. Upon taking his seat, he could feel the eyes of his coworkers bearing down on him. Without lifting his head, he could sense them exchanging glances with one another, trading looks that must have overwhelmly conveyed pity with a touch of morbid fascination. No one approached him, his thorough isolation to be an albatross around his neck for sometime to come. 

At 10 A.M., he took a smoke break, not a habitual smoker but then again the circumstances he now found himself in were not usual. Fishing his phone out of his pocket, he dialed Edith once again. "This is Edith, I can't come to the phone right now but if you leave me your name and number, I will get back to you ASAP." The familiar message greeted once more only to be followed by the accursed beep. “Hey Edith, I just want you to know that I love you and that I will swing by tonight to see you.” He would head Edith’s way as soon as work wrapped up for the day. He wanted the minutes to linger when the spirit of avoidance gripped him and he wanted the minutes to quicken their pace when his anxiety got the better of him. He spent the rest of the day sorting through his memories inwardly while projecting the illusion of diligently tapping at his keyboard. A few coworkers tried to awkwardly address him throughout the day, Kim from accounting brought him a card that read “ Thinking of you and yours. Our thoughts and prayers are with you during this time”. He thanked her with an uncomfortable smile and went on about his day. When 5 P.M. reared its ugly head, James was accosted by an overwhelming sense of dread.

He gingerly got up, a sudden burst of energy overtook him. The idea to buy flowers springs to his mind. He ventured to the florist 5 blocks down and picked up a bouquet of Chrysanthemums. Edith had always loved Chrysanthemums. She loved their earthy scent. James’ destination was 14 blocks away, leaving him some time to his thoughts. Blocks 1 through 3 were uneventful, he hardly thought of anything as his feet carried him onward. Willing themselves to march on without the input of their owner. At block 4, a familiar site appeared, the awning of Mario’s bodega. Mario’s carried Edith’s favorite brand of orange soda, she had never seen it anywhere else in the city. They had been here that fateful night two weeks ago.

They had gone out to dinner that night, the smell of tikka masala permeated his memory. The restaurant had been down the street from the bodega. Edith had wanted to go for her soda after dinner, James had obliged knowing that it would please her. They walked together hand in hand under the glow of the bright street lights. As they approached their destination, James experienced only what he could describe as a growing sense of malaise. Edith was undaunted as always, nothing could stand in the way of her and her orange soda. James shook off this strange feeling and attributed it to a long day. Edith’s hand slipped from his as she disappeared into the shop. He missed her hand in his as soon as she let go. Instead of accompanying her into the store, he had elected to linger outside and smoke his cigarette as a digestif. The fatigue was settling in and he was having a hard time keeping his eyes ajar. He hardly noticed the young fidgety teen who had slipped into the store shortly after he and Edith had arrived. A series of rapid fire pops rippled through the air. All of sudden, James found himself wide awake.

The sight that had greeted him upon entering the bodega originated from his worst nightmare. He saw red. His Edith had been caught in the middle of fire. The same young man he had seen moments earlier was cowered behind the shelf immediately adjacent to her. The cashier lay prostrate on his back in a sea of red, a similar sea of red also engulfed Edith. James didn’t remember calling emergency services, he didn’t remember riding in the ambulance with her, all he could recall was the emptiness consumed him and took hold of all he held dear.

He hadn’t realized that he had been crying, this had been the first time he could so clearly see the events of that awful night in his waking hours. The hazy apparitions had been haunting his dreams, but he had never seen them so clearly since that night. He hadn’t realized that his legs had stopped moving, he didn’t know how long he had paused, but he decided to press on to his destination. He owed it to Edith.

The last segment of the journey felt like an eternity. The longest 9 blocks that he had ever walked in his life. Weary and worn, he reached his destination. He entered the sliding doors of the hospital, barely acknowledging the wave of the night nurse. She had become accustomed to his aloofness. His feet transported them to Edith’s room. He always paused before entering the room. He always needed a brief second to compose himself before entering. As he entered her room, the familiar and acrid odor of urine affronted his nostrils and his beautiful Edith laid out on the bed, her head bandaged. Edith’s placid tranquility contrasted perfectly with Jame’s weariness, it seemed that they would always compliment each other. She had not roused from her unconscious state in all this time and no one knew if or when she would return. Her phone lay charging on the TV stand across the room from her bed. James fished a small box out of his front pocket and opened it, revealing the small yet elegant diamond ring tucked within the folds of the container. He plucked the ring from its box and reverently slid it upon her right ring finger. A sad smile parted his lips as he felt his tears start anew. He took his phone from his pocket and  called her once again. "This is Edith, I can't come to the phone right now but if you leave me your name and number, I will get back to you ASAP."