the only explanation

I did it because the light was leaning heavy over the horizon at a particular moment of humidity and sweat. The air was like butterscotch candy freshly licked, wet, sticky then spit out -- it's scent clinging to my skin. A constant crackling echoed across the lawn like heat breaking into pieces, firecrackers across the sky.

She leaped across the fence as if we were related, and came at me fast and furious, until I couldn't recognize her at all anymore. The leaves shimmered violently against the wall and it was only then that I felt every detail of my former life as a vision in front of me. And although she had encouraged me to take the trail to the left, it is true, she never promised the appropriate, or even desirable, outcome of my travels. In retrospect, I would have preferred to accumulate enough financial stability to have avoided the entire incident altogether.

I did it because at that moment, standing over the pool table, each striped ball angled in an awkward direction, I knew there would be no hope of ever winning or losing another game. I did it because his breath, against my back, salty and fresh, like the ocean, charged with electricity and the scent of lime.