He could see her back in the tall ornate mirror at the end of the hall    through her

but he couldnt see her

she sauntered towards him 

in the ivory hem of her spoiling satin nightgown he saw the same lime filigree that hed seen reflected in the windshield as he rode at the foot of a tangled hillside and wetted trees

sauntered  no     wasnt right                 shutter

shuttered

                 shuttered  like voluminous white clouds  starkly  in a brilliant blue sky

through the black trees in the odd gaps between the wiper blades                                                   

and despite their violent beating

the sky was unperturbed  placid

                                                                                             

a million Hueys wouldnt have impressed   or moved it

sometimes he wished the sky would stomp them

again   and again an again

  

to death

crush them like the tiny ants they were  Crush them  ending their Violence and Destruction

make pitiful their grandiose malevolence

which they flashed about as afterthought  a humored accoutrement   a diamond pinkie ring

for once and all                                                                   

finally put away

Finally

as seemed to be her intention

                                                 he could see she was carrying a revolver behind her back

its hammer cocked

she shuttered in the hall  spasmodically

towards him

                      seductively

perhaps believing she obscured her reflection

in the mirrors tainted silver  he could only see her from behind 

the pistol big against her back

she shuttered again

                                  nearing him

committed

he could see that in her posture and back  the set of her shoulders under the straps of her gown

the filigree delicately jerking as she throbbed towards him

he didnt warn her

he raised his revolver

swinging it up from his hip

his arm   unflinching as a hand of time

levelled

he fired a single shot into her chest

he saw the ruin split out through her back just above her secreted revolver  shattering her like a porcelain doll

a split second before the bullet smashed the mirror glass

it fell in shards and ruin at the end of the hall

taking her completely down to the worn runner atop the brittle pine slat floor

where she yet might be struggling in the faceted glass

he didnt want to see

it was too strange

he holstered his .44

not remembering when he drew it

some doors opened quietly onto the hall

he saw silhouettes at their jambs across the hall from them in boxes of streetlight

terrified heads warily peeked out  

looked up and down the hall

a smashed mirror on one end

bits of quicksilver falling like tears

making tiny mewling sounds

gunsmoke hanging twisting on the other end

its hue the pallor of a dead mans face

outside the Nevada air was uncommonly humid

over the Badlands billowed stained white clouds

beyond their soft edges  flat like glass 

the untroubled sheen of blue skies

the veil and paper that wrapped the planet into the untidy bundle it was

holding  keeping the miscreants there

its day skies night skies inured

theyd seen it all before

and were never

or never again

surprised

0850,  Twosday,  19  5. 15