{ ... }

۞

{across a telephone}

{crossing a sea}

It was a long story, cut short.  

The Other:  “I knew it! I knew you'd leave me here,”  

{waiting for nothing}  

The One:  “A jealousy is consuming me,”  

°The One says leave me, The Other says don't leave me°  

{waiting for a reply}  

The conversation was taking place across a sea's worth of reception, breaking-up, bad waves.  

The One:  “If I give you a time can you come and join me?”

The Other:  “You're going to have to stop treating me like some Other.  I know we've not establishèd whether we are each other's significant other just yet, but, I told you before you left that I'm still not ready to exhume what happened to me because of the last One.” °and yet, I remember° she rememberèd.  

The One:  “How about the 9th? You'll be in France then, right?”  

The Other:  “I'm too much of an experienced traveller to know that if I come looking for you in a city like Paris we'll miss each other somehow inevitably.”  

The One:  “Listen, I'm not The One for you,”  

  The One lost the call completely, abandoning The Other on the end of the line.  Abandoning The Other.  Abandoning, reckless.  Reckless abandon.  

  The One didn’t truly appreciate what was so significant about the significant other.  Until it was over.  The phonecall.  

۝