Alchemy by Kelly Grotke

I hadn’t thought about it, until you asked. Late in the year, since it’d already begun to snow. Winter. Dark blue night, coats and coverings and everyone hurrying against the threat of cold, retreating like turtles into their shells. One of those nights, and we’d planned to meet downtown after work. Drinks first in one of those chattery little places near the harbor – don’t ask me which one, they come and go and yet they are always there and that night so were we. So yes, catching up first since it’d been awhile, months maybe, then back out into the streets for some holiday shopping – grandkids, I think. She was like that, always had been – things done alone go lost and disappear, things done together were like tiny anchors thrown down in some raging sea of time. I’m joking. Yes, well, anyways. You know the department store at the end of the boulevard, the one that does the holiday window displays? She was a wicked storyteller, truly wicked. So there she was whispering in my ear as we stood together at the back of the crowd, me grinning and giggling like a child as her words circled round the golden glittering holiday tableaus, warmed by the light of all the base matter emerging beneath. See that one in the center? she said. Smiling now, just as I am smiling. Hard to believe he’s the least favorite by far, but my my, things do change….

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