She was doing mundane things on a mundane day. The heat was not felt on her skin and the sweat dripped in no specific pattern down her naked back. She knew her neighbor would sometimes pretend to be bird watching, when in fact, his binoculars were pointed right at her pale bottoms, her naked pale bottoms. Since she started her new chapter, for a lack of a better description, so would do mundane things in a non-mundane manner. Like today. Hang her washing outside, while standing in her birthday suit. She couldn’t do this in her previous chapter.

It was well after the whole ‘between 12 and 3, stay under a tree’ and having the freedom of a day where she did not have to work, erased the numbers in her clock. Her time was her own. Well, her own and her dogs. She didn’t know if she was still sad. She did not know if her heart will ever be a heart again. But she had this giddy feeling whenever she saw him.

Him. him. him.

He did not have a name. He was just him. It was while she was still basking not only in the hot sun, but also the thought of running into him again, that her dog dog Tokyo came running towards her, with a half dead bird. ‘Noooo Tokyo’ and she laughed a little at how funny that sounded. She didn’t used to laugh so much. Laughing meant your guard was down and you can get hurt. So in these careless moments, she forced her laugh to be bolder and sillier and whatever it wanted to be. because for the first time, she was alone, but not lonely. After trying to wrestle Tokyo for the bird, naked, she heard a faint knock on the front door of her tiny house. This house was her pride. She did this for herself, by herself. Every brick, every metal sheet, every window and door was done by her. She quickly grabbed a towel on the washing line and ran to the front door, which was a mere 8 meters. The house has a lot of glass, so it was easy to see into the house and out the house. In this instance, unfortunately. As she tripped on the edge of the dog bed, her towel came undone and there, at her very own front door, stood him. him. him.

He was now smiling and awkwardly trying to look, but not look. ‘Just a minute’. She had no idea why she said that, as she would need way more to find her dignity again. She grabbed the dog blanket and just went with it. She opened the door to a smiling man. Him.

He didn’t say anything, but was making bird sounds. No. No. Him can’t…. she woke up. Her stupid new phone had the worst well intended alarm. She looked around. She was still in the house. She still had to protect herself. She had her clothes and her guard. She was still alone, and lonely. The summer was cold again.