Paul

The door closed, not slammed, just a click shut. She walking down the hall. She started down the stairs the sound deminished, then silence. Here I sat at the table, on one of the chairs, we bought the day I added the Marlboro thermos to the bill. She looked at me for a reason, I pointed at the Coleman label, she knew how I felt about Coleman, then she began to laugh as she relized that the song I was humming was from the movie The Jerk, "I'm picking out a themos for you..." Steve Martin's character sang. She let me buy it for her, a useful, joke gift. The thermos sat in the center of the table now, flanked by the sugar bowl and salt and pepper shakers. We did use it when the water was off for repairs. The thermos and I were, as of today, her past, she would be walking into the future with him. Suddenly the name of that movie didn't seem so funny.