he looked at his daughters as they sat together on the eldests bed it was in the tiled sunroom at the back of her house  

the bed was there because the room offered the least obstructions it afforded them the best access to her

                                                                                                              and one really couldnt beat the wall of glass between the room and the outdoors separated by the quiet simple white woodwork that concealed the structural posts and headers that supported the tall angled openbeam ceiling

it was a warm beautiful room

                                and after she was in it not but for a week she wondered out loud speaking to her husband and children Why didn’t we use this room more often?

then they shrugged in answer

she shrugged in reply Dumb.

she looked at him Dadu?

I agree Dumb Whats with the Dadu

she smiled I went to text you once, dad u running late, I think that was it, you know how much you don’t care for our shorthand when texting, and I struck d-a-d-u. I went to correct it, but saying it, Dadu, I found I like it, so I coopted it as my pet name for you; you and Mom had pet names for us, Sis and I, while we were growing up, but you and Mom were always Dad, Mom. Not much room for play.

So . . my pet name is owed to an error

she smiled bigger her wicked dimplesher lovely dimplesthe dimples she and her sister shared with their mother carved her cheeks he didnt have dimples  maybe he was envious that was their attractive familial trait aside from their sex that bound themthat made them an incorruptible bloc in their democratic household

especially on football Sundays

the girls were painted the light of the sunset reflecting off the tall bamboo grass that wove itself through the roots of old shaggy cypresses

Thats the damnedest sunset  Huh girls

they looked up at him briefly then out the window they had been too consumed in their conversation to notice

his youngest said  It’s a beaut, Dad!

his eldest nodded smiled big the ventilator mask she had placed on her face hissed as her smile broke the seal

the damnedest sunset happened to be just then under his finger his finger holding his place as he saw it peripherally the encroaching colouring in the room through the windowpanes

                                                                    so he dropped his head since he had their attention and continued to read smeared like sirup of opals over everything and dripping off the clouds the way molten metal comes out of the ladle in a steel mill

Thats Elliot Chazes Black Wings Has My Angel

Wouldntve expect that language out of a noir novel woudja

they shook they heads no

                            and as they did he flashed back to when they were little girls at bedtime and he read to them

it was a small comfort

                        when their comfort was a rare commodity

he smiled at them a small tear in his eye

his youngest smiled and said  We remember too, Dad. We remember too.

sometimes they talked without talking 

11ishness,  Thursday,  19  9. 19

1422,  Monday,  30  3. 20