A Most Haunting Tune

I remember my first glimpse of Karolina. I was already a regular here at the abandoned dock, always feigning the need for a stroll to escape my doting husband. When Karolina had stumbled upon the dock, she'd struck me like the first bite of a pomegranate, bittersweet and explosive. In her rusty eyes, I’d recognized the same plight as mine.

It wasn’t long before we were regulars here together, dipping our toes into the murky water and each other’s murky lives. The wispy willow above us would eavesdrop, sometimes tickling us with leafy fingers, and Karolina would laugh a haunting tune.

I remember the last time Karolina saw me, when that laugh had scorched my heart so secretly, for so long, that tears came. I claimed some allergy to explain my watery eyes, sure that she couldn’t be touched by this same flame. But she drew a line from my cheek to chin, like solving a geometry problem, then we kissed our first time.

I remember how hard our bodies fought separating. How her eyes had eclipsed the sun as we parted ‘until next time.’ How the bliss buzzing within had kept me from noticing the car screeching fatally my way.

Karolina no longer sees me as we sit together on our dock, but I remain here anyway. Unable to wipe away her tears, I often shake the willow into tickling her face, trying to morph her crying into laughter, that most haunting tune.