Louise

Louise is leaving now. Her toes probe the dark, inch worming out, sensing for obstacles, searching for her jeans, hoping not to knock over her boots. She curses herself for breaking her own rule.

No matter what,

if you haven’t been there before,

Pile it together near the door.

Eventually with her clothes in her arms she flees like a refugee to the bathroom and begins to dress in dim light from a high window. The sun is rising and the dawn air is cold and feels foreign. Male snoring foghorns a proximity warning from another bedroom while she pees as quietly as any woman has. Her bare bottom puckers with gooseflesh before she can pull on her jeans. Beside the toilet on the sink is a can of male body spray. Louise picks up the can thinking to take it with her and she sniffs the aerosol’s top but then puts it back down. It smells different without the body. In the bathroom mirror Louisa smiles at her dim reflection. Bed hair, panda eyes.

One final check for what you should never leave behind. Phone, credit card, keys. Boots in hand she tiptoes in her socks, which have somehow stayed on the entire time, down the short hall to the lounge room. The air is warmer and musty with cannabis and pizza, curtains are drawn but the darkness seems populated.

Someone or something is sleeping on the couch. Wet shallow breathes in a funny time signature. Louise freezes. It sounds like a dog but there was no dog earlier.

 It is too dark to tell but after a few seconds without a canine growl Louise breathes again. She slides on her boots, moves forward with zombie arms. She remembers the front door is further on and to the right beside a bookcase. Her fingers touch the spines of books.

She shuffles until the bookcase ends and her hands feel the front door’s wooden panels.

Louise finds the doorknob and turns the key in the dead lock. The mechanisms move smoothly, quietly and with relief she eases the door open. Louise looks back from the open doorway and sees a Labrador on the couch. The dog is old and overweight; his grey muzzle rests on its paws while watery eyes watch her. She waves and his tail wags.

Louise eases into the night.

Photo by Misael Nevarez on Unsplash