The Brazen Fox

The river was freezing tonight, an icy wind thrashing across the piers and it hurt just to turn the corner. I didn't meet a single soul, except a young woman practicing dance moves underneath a power generator light. The water was low, and the earthy smell of rotting ocean floor swept over the sides of the promenade in cold waves. The sky was perfectly clear, starry and deep blue, the lights of the city twinkling quietly. I shivered.

I can't be near you, she said, and the words ring in my head like metal shingles. This won't pass. The age difference between us expanded and grew into those corners that cannot be explained but with time. Her words felt like a bad rerun. I tried to do better than in years past. Perhaps heartbreak returns to us when we do not learn out lesson. You never wanted to be the cause of anyone's tears.

Yet you wreak havoc, everywhere you go.