i miss you when you're here

Silence.

It's that time of day when the electric lamps across the streets and in the many segragated houses are yet to light up - but the sky has already dimmed. She stands by the window, smoking and staring quietly.

He sits at a small dining table in the center of the room... watching her watch nothing.

"Why do you come here?" he asks her.

"I miss you when I'm gone." her first words.

"I miss you when you're here." is his reply.

"And yet you ask me to come back?"

He rises slowly, making his way over to the window - by her side - and looks out to the dark, cold city. Slowly, he turns to face her, something tugging at his heart, and says quietly "How could I not?" He reaches for her shoulder - pauses as if conflicted - withdraws his hand - then reaches out again letting his fingers pass through her ephemeral body which shimmers in the wake of this slight gesture.

"Why do you do that? You know we can't touch.."

"Yes, I do.. but I don't - can't - believe it.. still.." comes the anguished reponse.

She turns from the window, facing him finally, looking into his eyes and says "Im sorry, I don't mean for this to hurt you. I..." and as the moonlight spills into the room, her whispered words dry up. In the growing silence she walks through the wall into the gloom as he watches her from the window.

Watches her fading away - like the smoke from the cigarette - to invisibility.