CELESTE CAME INTO the kitchen with her child. She was wearing a long black coat, and her child sat in the corner playing with some toys. I was sleeping there in my cot. It was only big enough for one person, and my feet dangled off the end. She walked by me and looked down, and then she stopped and sat next to me. “But why are you waiting for me?” she asked. “It has been so many years. This has been uncomfortable. It’s tormenting me. It’s tormenting you.”
Can’t you just let go of me and of this thing?
I sat up. “No,” I said. “For me, you will always be Woman Number One. You will always be first place in my heart. You occupy the first spot. I have tried in so many ways to get you out of there, but you are stuck there, for good it seems. So there’s no sense in trying to dislodge you from my heart, because it just won’t work. Believe me, Celeste, I’ve tried. This is just how it is.”
Celeste looked troubled for a moment, but then she curled up beside me and she hugged me. “See,” I said. “It’s really not so bad. It’s just love. How could love ever be bad?” Just then, an old woman came out of the kitchen. She had long white hair and was dressed in her food preparation clothes, a white shirt and pants. The old woman said, “You two better knock it off. There’s no love in my kitchen!” I turned over and said to the old woman, “You better stop, lady. I like old, saucy women. If you don’t go back in that kitchen, you’ll be the next one in my cot.”
north! 