TE23 Double Feature

The Forests

Sandrine Collette

On his own, there was nothing he wanted. It was for her. For someone else. On his own— nothing interested him, he might as well die right now.

* * *

Don’t move. Don’t expand.

Live like a worm.

He’d never wondered what might happen when he got to the Forests.

Never see the day again.

Not “when.”

It was raining outside.

Just after.

The hydrangea had been in bloom but—

He’d always said, We’ll see.

It stayed dark inside.

Well, now he saw. He’d got here at the end of his journey and now he had seen for himself what he hadn’t wanted to accept before: there was nothing left here either. And this time, he wasn’t referring to the burned, deserted world, the ashes up to his eyebrows. He was talking about hope, future, desire. It was to this that the answer was nothing .

There was some wind.

The only gesture, the only movement of the earth.

In fact, everything is dead, he thought.

*

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