THE LIGHT FROM DISTANT OBJECTS
by Michael Downend
Dialogue sample:
DELIA: “He was kindly. We’d be out walking in an
evening in late summer after the rain had passed.
He would suddenly stop, swoop down to save a
butterfly stranded, drowning in a puddle of muddy
water along the path. He’d gently lift the
creature and blow on it – softly, then whisk it
away waving it from his hand. It was his habit.
Sometimes, they would be beyond saving and would
flop ingloriously to the pathway – dead. For the
remainder of the evening he would have such a
look of sadness about him. Imagine – a bug dies
and he’s devastated. I suppose in a way that was
what made him likeable – his love of the
downtrodden. I wonder if that’s why I loved him.
Or, was it simply pity that I’d mistaken for
something else - love? Did I make more of this
man than was really there. In the end though I
finally had a sense I belonged somewhere.”