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The neighborhood was alive on this Spring January evening. Narcissi must have had to raise her hand five or six times to gesture to all the neighbors she passed in the long loop. the birds were out - the big buzzards noisily roosting and the tiny chirpy ones flying in formation.
The neighbor kids across the street had friends over and were walking behind her some distance. The other neighbors were getting a new roof, and it was going to rain tomorrow.
She loved the rain.
And she had waved to one in the household and passed the house and heard the blond lady call out, "how are you doing?" Narcissi waved her hand.
"You don't really want to know how I'm doing. I've lost my damn mind. I'm so in love with a fifty-six year old man who loves football and crossword puzzles and lives in Athens I can hardly breathe. We broke up because I didn't know how to act like someone who didn't care. It sucks for me. I'm not really in a good place at all but thanks for asking."
She said this under her breath so the bleached blond lady never had a chance.
Narcissi kept breathing. She got the three pieces of mail from her mailbox. None of them were for her.
She tried to look pretty in the abstract.
It helped to think he might miss her. But, he was eating his fish sandwich at the high low and waiting for jeopardy. She didn't matter a bit.
The piebald cat climbed in the window after the yard dog got distracted by something new and barked at a new target.
Music wafted.
Narcissi wanted to sleep. Just to make it all go away.
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