Once Again, an Only Child

She's gone.

I speak of her reasons, and I am calm when I do. I do not let it show, just how much her leaving cuts me. I do not take it personally, I know why she did, why she needed to, and she was right, it was the only way. If she stayed, things would have just gotten worse for her. I know I would have tried to be there, and put in as much effort as I could possible spare for her, but in the end, she would have been alone with those who tormented her heart and so, I can not blame her for going. I can only miss her. Every time I think I can finally spend time with her again, we are cast apart by fate for weeks or months on end. She is the last of my shattered family and she is gone and try as I might, I can not help but feel abandoned.

I stand there, in the clean, empty apartment, and it occurs to me, that before he gave me this place, I did not even know it existed. I loved him once, long ago, but had never seen the inside of his home. He had always been found, wandering the expansive boundaries of mine. Now, here I am, with his cast off leftovers of a broken life, all crated and tucked away, and I wonder, what am I going to do with it this place?

I do not have time to dwell, even with my sister's departure, there is still so much to do. I fill the bowl full of seed for squawking masse of misery upon the perch, and count my fingers when I turn away. "I will be back tomorrow Scarlet...you bitchy bundle of feathers" I grumble aloud into the otherwise empty space, "perhaps I should hire a cook...let them take the apartment" I muse as I pull the door closed behind me.

Being a landlord on top of being a business owner, how quickly things have changed. I am being drawn further and further into the 'stone cage' as my friend likes to put it. He is right, that is exactly how it feels here, and yet I am here more and more, supposedly of my own free will.

I step outside and look up at the night sky, and am greeted by a crisp breeze and stars peeking through the torchlight that lines the streets. "I need to go home" I murmur to the winds, smelling the salt upon the air as I move towards the allure of it. It takes me no time at all before I am on the beach and feeling better for it, and my feet begin to automatically return me to the path I have walked countless times before, to the safety of my camp, and to the one person left in this world who still cares I exist.