by Soidenet Gue
Eddy Lesser arrived at Nick’s cottage-style house several hours later with his small luggage. The mild afternoon could look much nicer, in part, if the sky were less overcast. The twelve-year-old girl who welcomed him and then decided to usher him toward the manicured lawn backyard, where her father was, appeared too thin. She had short, soft black hair that made her look like a boy. The absence of any earrings made her look even more so, Eddy thought, despite her casual pastel-gray spaghetti-strap dress. When her face hardened after he removed his mask, he smiled and offered her his hand in a moment of awkwardness. Then, he stroked her bare shoulder, as if to reassure her that he was not sick. He could almost feel the bone sticking out of her skin.
“I’ve seen you before in a few pictures,” the girl said. “Dad hasn’t said much about you.”
“Pretty sure whatever he had to say is lovely.”
“He said you think you’re the only one ever bound for heaven. You and your friends.”
“I see.” Eddy let out the all-too-polite smile he had been trying to suppress. “You must be Eve. Am I right?”
“Yes.”
“I thought so. It’s nice to meet you. I don’t think I’ve ever met any Eve before. In the Bible—oh, yes. Just not in real life.”
Eve nudged Eddy’s upper arm with her head. “Did she also trim her hair? I mean, the biblical Eve.”
Eddy giggled, unaware that the brief smile on her face had not materialized in weeks and that she had cut her hair in solidarity with her ailing father, although her father’s light-brown hair remained intact. “Very clever. So, how are things with you and your father here?”
Approaching her father under the dotted vermilion retractable awning in the warm breeze, Eve did not reply. It was as if she had been instructed not to or because she assumed her father must have heard Eddy.
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