He uncorks a 2017 bottle of Caymus Cabernet and pours out a story twice as old. Six words filter through. Six I want to unhear.
Knife, night
Argument.
Slashed, severed
Fled
So many questions to ask once my thoughts unscramble, and stomach untwists. Only one makes it past my lips. “Brother, why did you tell me this?”
I loathe to share his burden.
Cynthia Jalynski’s essays and fiction have appeared in Hippocampus Magazine, The Monarch Review, and elsewhere. Her background in psychology influences and informs her writing, but not its personal and free-spoken style.