Dappled Things - by Diane Stevens

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dappled Things is a one-time column  featuring a short story.

 

 

July, 2009    Virgil

 

I live in a tiny cabin in the woods. Don’t need much. Never have. Can of beans, stack of firewood, good book. I read other people’s lives. To see how it’s done. Biographies teach you. That’s how I learn about love. Passion. Affairs of the heart. Flaubert stayed single. Yet who better knew a woman’s heart? Love thundered from Beethoven’s hands. Still, he died alone. Henry James, unwed, liked it that way.

 

My mother found love twice. Who can say what’s right? How much to keep? How much to lose? I’ve seen pictures. Blue hat, penciled brows. Confusion in her oval face. My father died from his grudge.