My Cardboard Balcony

by Belinda Roddie Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, things just work out a certain way. In this case, Emily and I went our separate ways almost nonchalantly. It wasn't as if something was broken, or torn, like a china plate or a shirt. It simply ended - like a car being placed in park after a long drive, or the faucet turning off after streaming hot water and soaking into my hair. Six years went away like our lease on the townhouse, like our shared groceries, like the split utility bills. I was sent on my way, and Emily? Well, Natalie was waiting for her, nestled in the driver's seat of her van, being a good "friend." I knew that people would view my reaction as cold-hearted, like I wanted this to happen. Of course I didn't want what I considered to be a solid relationship to wrap up, but really, that was the only adjective that could be used to describe our relationship: Solid. Like a big, bulky brick in a building. Solid, but cracked and gray and staine...

It was considerably rough terrain, and Arvey was already beginning to feel her energy slide away from her like fat off a bone. She dropped to one knee in order to redo the laces on her right boot, the wind brushing against her hair and causing a shudder to run down from her scalp to the tail end of her back. She watched as Mistress Kor stopped a few meters ahead of her, looking over the lip of the hill.