Waiting for Eden by Elliot Ackerman

Author:Elliot Ackerman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2018-09-24T16:00:00+00:00

Eden didn’t think trying in the old way would help, but Mary did and she drove them to their old place at Onslow Beach. It was winter and the parking lot was empty. Seagulls flew overhead and they looked black against the sun. The seagulls also walked on the dunes and here they looked white. She parked the Mustang with its fender to a break in the dunes, looking out at the ocean. Near the shore the wind chopped whitecaps into the waves, but farther out the wind wasn’t as strong and the water was very smooth. On the ocean there were a few big ships and they were distant enough to look like they stood still, even though they moved fast and heavy as big ships do.

When she turned the ignition off, he didn’t say anything and it was quiet between them. The heat wasn’t on and soon it escaped the car and the air became cold inside it. She became cold and frustrated that he wouldn’t touch her. So she turned the car on again and reached into the backseat for a bag of bread ends she’d brought. She stepped outside and fed the seagulls while the car heated up.

He watched her from the passenger seat. She walked up to the dunes with the bag and the seagulls that had been there flew off. They circled in the sky where the sun was and again they looked black against it. Then she began to throw pieces of the bread in the air. A few of the seagulls were able to catch the bread in this way, but it was hard to do and most couldn’t manage. So the bread fell into the sand and soon the seagulls gathered around her. She laughed as they came close, pecking at her feet with their yellow bills and white necks. He looked into the sky and he could no longer see the black silhouettes of any seagulls, even those that could catch the bread had chosen to do what was easy and gather around her.

Soon the bag was empty and she came back through the dunes toward the Mustang. The wind on the beach had blown across her face, reddening her cheeks. She climbed into the driver’s seat. The car had been warm for a while and she was very cold now, and she said as much, hoping he might warm her.

He pressed her hands between his two. And hers were soft and so cold he wondered if the narrow bones in them might snap. She leaned into him and breathed warmly toward his neck. He began to feel as though he wasn’t warming her, but that she was making him cold. The curtain of her hair was now very close to his face and he could smell her smell. He couldn’t tell the difference between her hands and his, they both felt numb to him. She pulled back for a moment. He felt his heart eating at his chest in a way that had become more and more familiar in the many months since he’d returned home.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.