The weighted press of measured steps on stair accompanied by an echoed call to the familiar. The first syllable of her name severedΒ Β midway, yet it tolled long after the utterance rang out. The comfort of routine; tethers of association snapped under the strain of realisation. A mocking gift from forgetfulness...
...she left him..
Mechanical body shifts fighting urges to hesitate and listen to her vanished sleeping breath. Vacant the cold bedroom, the chamber harbouring her scent on fabrics, pillow and scantly furnished dresser top. Each sniff raw as salt on opened wounds. She left and left him only remorseful residues from the harvest of three years and five months.