Closure

The mobile phone vibrates me awake. I reach for it, hold the bright screen to my squinting face, and set it for thirty minutes later. I hated mornings.

Many minutes later, I open my eyes to see the sun rays out of the window. Green grass sticking up out of a swamp of fading fog. But in this fog, the trees never end, they float upwards, for all we know, limitless as bean stalks. My eyes shut.

The phone rings again. I turn it off. Peninah makes a sound. I should get up. I should want to get up. My eyes close.

She slides up next to me. Her chin tucks into my shoulder. She gets up.

I actually like chilly days. They are warmth, hot coffee. They are staring into grey, feeling soothed by it, letting it cover you like a blanket of introspection. Your whole world is what is right in front of you because everything else is consumed by fog. A veil over the world.

My eyes open again and I know they must stay open. I have slept far too long. I don't want to get up. Oh, I don't want to. I get up.

I look at the time, an hour of my day lost. A flock of crows fly black over the trees.

Peninah smiles, says, "How did you sleep?"

***

The smell of coffee and sausages filled my little kitchen, and for the first time in months, my kitchen had come back to life.

Peninah was standing at the kitchen counter, my long shirt made her look like a scarecrow or something, but a beautiful one, she had her back turned on me, I could see her applying jam to some slices of bread at the counter top, she was singing,

"Your voice sounds like heaven flowing down to earth", I grabbed her by the waist and kissed her neck "your singing makes me feel like I am floating in the air"

She blushed.

"I see now the King is clean and ready for breakfast" she looked at me, her eyes sparkling.

"Yeap" I sat drew a stool and sat next to her.

Peninah spread the jam over the slices of bread and sprinkled tomato on top as if it were cake decorations. There was a joy in how she did it, as if for a moment she was happily absorbed by a feeling of love that played in her subtle smile and soft gaze. Then she brought it over, hers and mine, the breakfast that would later become a part of the rhythm of our lives together. For the first time ever I could see every day of my future and I wanted it, I wanted to stay and be apart of it more than anything I've ever wanted.

***

"So why did you bail out on me." The coffee was hot

"uhm..Megan, it's hard to explain."

"Try me."

"You're amazing in ways I don't understand," She bit a slice, "Your presence brings my body into a standstill, and Everytime I think of that day fills my heart with guilt."

Pin drop silence, I watched her chew food with calculated measures that drew me closer to her, I knew what I wanted now, and the missing puzzle of my life had started unfolding, slowly that I had not yet realized.

"I am not a saint Mr." She sipped her coffee, "Isabella... and many hundred of girls before her can testify to that."

"No one's a saint either," I smirked

"You don't understand, I am not a saint in a way that makes the devil shiver in his kingdom, in a way that no saviour can dare volunteer to save, it's in my blood," She paused, looked at me and parted my shoulders, "I don't mean to hurt you but, I'm not one to be tamed, and that night, when your dick was deep in my pussy, and I felt the shivers as we orgasmed, and the way you handled me reminded me that it was a while since someone treated me more than a whore than a human, I panicked."

I could see tears linger in her innocent eyes, she was fighting not to burst.

I hugged her.

Silence

"I have been in fights, and I could be a gold medalist or hold a PHD in snatching people's treasures," She let tears flow, "Isabella isn't the first to fight with me, I have been in combat with wives, mothers, girlfriends, men, boys and girls, I find my kick in snatching, and ours wasn't fun for me because I didn't see or you talk about a woman in your life, funny enough, it hurt me to know you had non."

I've seen people, girls, ladies and women, but Peninah proved to be a rare breed, and in a way, this attracted me to her, my heart was beating fast, and my tenth cup of coffee was almost empty.

"I couldn't bare the fact that you had no girlfriend or wife, I had to leave."

"So, do you mean you enjoy the fights and all the drama you course?"

"Yes, I find happiness in all the drama and chaos, I've never been in love, you know, I prefer in lust."

"What about Peter?" I inquired

"Peter?, that son of a bitch, He was a coward."

"Why?"

"He was Isabella's husband, with two kids together, three years of marriage or so." she wasn't crying anymore, her eyes were fixed at the ceiling, she didn't even blink.

"I met him through Isabella, my best friend. And I couldn't resist the urge of creating chaos, I wanted to be happy, like Isabella was."

This girl is a super nerd

"Isabella found out about our affair, this night, we

were making out in her bedroom, just like several nights before, we fought, Peter was standing right before us, pants down, a condom up - are you hurting?"

"No, continue?" my heart was beating harder

"She insulted us, called me a whore and blamed me for making her husband week in bed,you can imagine." She laughed strangely, "I was just trying to be happy, and her husband was the chosen source of happiness, Don't judge me."

Here I was again, and I now believe that I am the most stupid person ever created as Wengstar puts it, the girl I had fucked twice opens up to me and tells me not to judge her, she was a psycho

"Run Megan, Run" the echoes in my head.

" We fought, and didn't realize when Peter had left the bedroom, the scratches of our nails and wails of insults filled the air." she remembered

She told me all this with a sense of pride and joy, and I wondered who she really was.

Does the devil have a daughter?

"The cries of Isabella's children from the Kitchen brought our attention to the real world, Isabella ran out of the bedroom as I followed, still insulting."

This girl is a psycho, and instead of running, I was getting attracted to her with every word she added in her story, there was something about her that I've never seen in any one, not even Wengstar.

"I watched Isabella holding her hands up straight above her head and scream, around her were her kids, crying. Peter was lying on his side, his shirt a soggy mess of red and his hands held firmly to a knife piecing deep in his heart,Whether he died that quickly, I don't know; but he was dead by the time we reached him, I looked and looked behind the darkness of my eyelids but there was not a single sorrow left and I was shocked, not for Peter but for my sake, I was not sorry, not sad, but a feeling of satisfaction in my heart, I heard Isabella calling my name, "Peninah! Peninah!" and I opened my eyes. She was coming towards me, her arms stretched out. she was running towards me like a lover who needed comforting. I buttoned my shirt and made it to the door." She burst into tears.

"Ever since I met you, I've seen the darkness fade, not at once, but like midnight turning to dawn, I need to atone for my sins, I need to face Isabella." She was shaking, tears socked my shirt, I held her tight closer to me.

My hands shaking.