Susan Constable
Parksville, British Columbia, Canada

Two Sons, Two Suicides

"I dreamt of hiding a scrap of paper," said the small, red-eyed woman in front of me, her arms wrapped around her chest.

"At first, I slipped it between pages of a book, but that seemed too obvious so I shoved it under the fridge where no one ever cleaned, but I was still afraid someone would find it so I went to the attic, opened the window, and tucked the paper under the sill, but what if the wind caught it and blew it away? No matter where I hid it, nothing felt safe."

"What if you were that piece of paper?" I asked.

Her eyes widened as she uncurled from a fetal position, moved forward to the front of the big old armchair, and stood up.

emerging
from a space
between rocks
on a craggy cliff
a butterfly takes flight