I’ve been trying to think of the name of someone to take her home from this story, from the story in which she lives, which is not, on some less desirable level, possible.

This is not the real story either, but the story in the hands of the man on the bus watching as he passes, just as we watch the man and the story and the bus passing.

There’s more.

There’s this: If I let you, you would kill her. You would do this in order to feel. You would do this to be more alive. I might give you some detail about her life that would help you justify your actions and maybe believe were for some other reason, but that would not be true. It would, make your job in the story easier, but that would not be true.

“I missed you,” she said, before you got home. She was practicing.

And there’s this: These are the right things to do, these things we are. These are the things that will someday mean something. Someday they will, these right things.

This is not going to be the name of the person who is going to take her home from the story, but it will have to do for someone who is not that person. “Bob” arrived when she was practicing, and she almost said it to him, almost said, “I missed you,” to this other man because she was practicing and didn’t mean it anyway.

Then she slept with Bob and Bob left and this other guy whose name I can’t think of because I don’t know it since it’s yours came home and she told him, “I missed you,” only now it was true because she hadn’t liked Bob very much.

And there’s this: It was thrilling, looking at her. While she was doing those things to him. You’ve already been thinking about this, haven’t you?

If you care, I could stop him from saying “I adore you," but wouldn’t it help you get motivated? He’s a bit sappy, but he means it and she’s going to try to use him to kill her ex-lover, the annoying one before you, who won’t leave her alone, and her father, who won’t let go of his money before he dies.

And there’s this: You didn’t know what to say, so you didn’t say anything. You didn't know what to do, either, but you couldn't do nothing, could you?

She just opened up and you didn't find what you thought you'd find there and it happened and it was easy. Not like sex. Not like the deeper emotional wound she expected. Not much of anything at all really.

And it stayed like that.

This is where I get off.

Now finish your story.

- Rich Ives