Kristen Barkman

Lost Chances

Every day at sundown, Leslie went to the edge of the ocean. She’d sit in her work clothes, toes licked by the waves, and watch as the sky changed until there were only pinpricks of stars and town lights. Sometimes she’d sit there longer, feeling in her bones that something would happen that would transform her like the sky. She could be bright blue or a sea of color, reflected back by all who met her. But when she left, she was always the deep darkness of the sky after there was nothing left but the distant stars and the faint whfoosh of the waves.