Title: Letting Go

Letting Go
by Keya


I meant to ask you how to fix that car

I always meant to ask you about the war

And what you saw across a bridge too far

Did it leave a scar?

He listened to the tapping of the rain, the angry words of the willow tree scrapping against the cold stone roof. There were moments he thought he would cry. Moments he thought he would rage. Now, surrounded by the emptiness of the house, frustrated and spent, he just sat.

Waited.

It didn't take her long to find him, following an internal hunch, a bond that softened, warned and protected them both, sometimes from each other.

When he saw her eyes shadowed, downcast, fear swirled from her heart to his. He gestured for her to sit down on the colorful ceramic tiles. She settled, white hair shinning with the moonlight filtering from the windows above. The inches that separated them nettled him dearly.

When she shivered, he flinched.

Or how you navigated wings of fire and steel

Up where heaven had no more secrets to conceal

And still you found the ground beneath your wheels

How did it feel?

"Cold?"

She nodded. David pulled off his leather jacket, eyebrow arched. She stalled, racked her brain for some old, familiar retort. In the end, she consented without a word.

She inquired about the pack first. He told her softly about each member, on how the blood kin were handling long life. In return and if he dared dream, in appreciation, she reached out over the distance between them, grabbed his hand, held on tightly. But the two failed to muster the will to speak of what was to come.

Bang the drum slowly, play the pipe lowly

To dust be returning, from dust we begin

Bang the drum slowly, I'll speak of things holy

Above and below me, world without end


"And you...?"

He could almost see her mental cranes turning, looking him over and guessing on how much he would tell her. "Fine," he said. Lied. He pondered if his sins would fade if he told her the truth, if he confessed that deep down he was angry and...afraid.

He should have known she wouldn't be so fooled.

I meant to ask you, how when everything seemed lost

And your fate was in a game of dice they tossed

There was still that line that you would never cross at any cost

I meant to ask you how you lived what you believed

With nothing but your heart up your sleeve

And if you were really deceived by the likes of me


"Don't give me that malarkey!"

He blinked, startled at the anger. Her voice snapped back off the walls, reached from one point of the high-ceilinged room to another, from top to bottom, hanging in the air.

"Star," David began, but was cut short by her sharp gulp of pain.

It was time.

No, he thought. No.


Bang the drum slowly, play the pipe lowly

To dust be returning, from dust we begin

Bang the drum slowly, I'll speak of things holy

Above and below me, world without end

Gone now is the day and gone the sun

There is peace tonight all over Arlington

But the song of my life will still be sung

By the light of the moon you hung

To distract her, he asked what Michael had done during World War III? How she had managed when he died? What were her children and grandchildren like?

She told him horror stories, happy stories, stories he had not been there to share. It grieved him. He finally, as she fought to breathe, as he held her, told her that one of his greatest regrets had been letting her go.

She smiled, wistfully.

And in his arms, her last breath brushed lightly on his cheek.

He let her go...again

I meant to ask you how to plow that field

I meant to bring you water from the well

And be the one beside you when you fell


Could you tell?

Bang the drum slowly, play the pipe lowly

To dust be returning, from dust we begin

Bang the drum slowly, I'll speak of things holy

Above and below me, world without end

END