My Cardboard Balcony

Denial by Belinda Roddie Please don't let it be so that my darling has been stolen away from me that her restless soul has been set free Please, please don't let it be so She was growing flowers for me She was growing flowers with sickly buds and the petals all drugged with the perfume of ecstasy She was growing flowers for me The carriage was waiting for her Its driver was dressed in black wearing spurs The hum of the Styx in everyone's ears The carriage was waiting for her And here I am, alone with no one else to call my own with tears that petrify into somber stone Please, please don't let it be so

"So what's it about?" "Um...what's what about?" "The story." He gesticulated wildly at the book. "Th-the novel. What's the plot?" "Oh." She giggled. "It's not much, really. It's pretty simple. Just this young woman who decides to teach in Alaska for a year and winds up falling in love." "With a handsome guy from town?" "A handsome gal, actually, but close enough."