“Where are you?” She shouts as she runs down the hallway.

“Go away!” He says, cramped behind a closet door.
“Where are you?” She knocks on the door to the room.
“Go away!” He says, and sneaks off to the parlor. 

“Where are you?” She says gently, slowing her pace.
“I am not here” He says, as she closes the front door behind her.
She sits on the steps and lights a cigarette.
Each exhale as heavy and thick as the silence that fills the house.