May 3, 2006 (2)

A young woman keeps a pistol under her pillow.  Never used-she touches it each night before she falls asleep.  The boy who stands outside her window says nothing but knows its there.  From his belly, a bullet hole bleeds through a silk shirt. He watches as she paints her toes and scrubs her teeth; she pretends not to see.  When shes crawled beneath her sheets, she mouths to him, come in.