there was something in the envelope she passed him that weighed more to him than paper and some ink it had a hint of something darker and a hint of something sweet and a little extra glue right on the tip there was something in the pain that shot right through him as he climbed up to the place he called his home they say every man s house should be his palace but his castle stank of cat shit and alone so he opened it and found a faded picture of a girl he s never met but somehow seen like a memory of a dream from early childhood like a virgin s idea of release she said i can bend my arms until they re backward but you can t bend your will to take in mine and i could hold my breath until next wednesday and still be doing fine he was sad in ways that he couldn t tell her though she tried to make his sadness all her own he couldn t see the use in spreading sadness so he took his dark depression and went home she saw things in him that he never bargained but it wasn t enough to save either one of them because she took all that sadness one step further and left him all alone to face the end