She was looking in the bathroom mirror pushing the features of her face around with her fingertips. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was playing Picasso. She threw her arm behind her neck and let it dangle there at an odd angle with her eyes gone crossed, which I guess she was Guernica then.
I tried reaching around her for my toothbrush but she pushed me away with her hip. I tried again and she swatted at my hand the way you would a mosquito or a disobedient child. I walked out then, because she never realized how the things that were funny to her carried weight from time to time. Anyway my teeth could wait her out.
I went out to the balcony that of course faced out into the apartment complex parking lot. If I were on the other side of the building I could see the power lines running through an undeveloped plot of land that would be an office park before I got a promotion or went back to school or reached any personal milestone besides maybe a birthday. I realized then, and this was a typical thing to realize while alone on a muggy night with eleven dollars and three cigarettes that were all supposed to last until payday, I realized that I had gone nowhere throughout one third of my life and had no intent to make a go of it really. Then the living room light came on through the window, and then the television came on through the window, and I knew that she was sitting down on the couch waiting to put her feet underneath my legs for warmth, and all of it was okay.
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