POMPEII…


“you know how it goes: like Pompeii. feelings frozen under so many layers of ash. frozen in awe. in fear. disbelieve. in anger maybe. on the surface one sees a nice quiet meadow. underneath, there’s always a face… distorted with pain, frozen in time.” he said listlessly swirling the drink in his glass.

“our relationship is an excavation site… digging for frozen time.” she said absentmindedly “did you decide about June? I need to get the plane tickets asap.”

“for all the happiness that left me… that left me behind…” he continued “‘to seize the moment’. to live the moment. I didn’t know it was only one moment, I thought it’d last since… since it’d have had just started…”

“How many glasses did you have so far?” she said not a little reproachingly.

“I was putting off being-happy… until the moment was gone…” he added to himself.

“this is why we need to go. fresh start and all.” she replied with fake enthusiasm.

“three. maybe four.” he said.

“listen I’ve got to go now. call me later and tell me what you’ve decided. we have the house till the end of July. it’d be a waste not to take advantage of it. at least for a week.” she said with exasperation.

“four, most probably four. where is it again?” he added as an afterthought.

“near Naples. right by the sea.” she said with a pleading tone.

“that’s where… Pompeii is. maybe we could visit?” he hesitated.

“sure.” she said, looked around the dingy bar with disgust, and stood up to leave.