Neil San Francisco — 1987 The Crystal Necklace

It is daylight. Neil roams the city, Huck on his shoulder. He aches with the memory of Pam. He wants her. He fears her. A wind blows up from the bay, carrying on it salt and sorrow. He sees Pam’s lovely white body, overlaid with a wash of crimson.

In the window of a small boutique, something glistens. An odd jeweled chain, hung with a crystal pendant is radiating with iridescent color. It is pricey, beyond his means really, but somehow it feels important. He cannot help but buy it. Leaving the shop, cradling it in his hands like a broken promise. He imagines it glistening on Pamela’s fragile neck, a miniature aurora borealis.

Neil wants to forget her, yet he knows that if he does, a part of him will die. His heart closed for so long, to all but the creatures of field, wood and air, has opened itself to her and though he feels betrayed, he cannot keep away.