Coe Review

the drawings phase, and his next project had not kicked into gear. He'd had
two weeks with little to do but think. But without being able to lay eyes on
her, Norma had faded, and it was Sharon who rose to the fore. She had been
there so long, he thought, then got crowded out by someone he never even
knew.
For all he did know, Norma had simply been transferred to a different
branch. But Eugene never inquired. Words no longer shrank from his
tongue, they didn't form in the first place. Urgency yielded to mere curiosity.
And curiosity ground away and flattened itself out. The questions didn't
disappear, but they drifted off to the side. There were a million and a half
possible explanations, but nothing was asked and no reason was given. The
teller's face, so vivid before, was now a colorless blur.
When she came downstairs Sharon noticed the flowers right away.
"Oh," she said. She leaned forward to sniff them. "These are nice. They're
beautiful, Eugene."
"They're for you." He gave her a smile. "A little something from my
heart to yours."
"Really?" Her eyes drilled into him. "How come?"
As he had grown more distant, so had she. In the evenings they ate in
silence, then went their separate ways. Mornings, too, neither had much to
say.
"I don't know," he answered. "I guess I just felt like it. I've been missing
you.
"Missing me?"
"Inside."
He dropped his jacket over the back of a chair. It was comforting the
way his wife melted against him, comforting and familiar. It was a matter
of the possible, Eugene thought, the possible versus the never. And here
Sharon was, far more than possible. She was right there.
Ben Brooks 13