Based on a True Story: Part Two

By J Rubino

"Part Two: love and hate and the stuff in between" is the second installment of the four-part Based on a True Story series that asks the question: Can anyone ever truly be more than the sum of his experiences?

Part Two is a selection of 14 memories exploring the complexities of love and friendship and divorce and betrayal.

Also available:

Part One: family and childhood from the outside looking in

Part Three: friends and strangers in other places, other times

Part Four: death and dying and worldly unknowns

• Language: English
• Publisher: J Rubino
• Release date: Jul 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465832450

Book preview

Based on a True Story

part two

love and hate and the stuff in between

by

j. rubino

copyright 2011 j. rubino

Smashwords Edition

Ethics previously published online at spillwayreview.com 2004

Eye for an Eye previously published online at storyglossia.com 2004

Half Dozen of the Other previously published online at apolloslyre.com 2004

Paper previously published in Buffalo Review literary magazine 1993

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this and every author.

Dedication

I believe that in the end we are nothing more than a collection of memories. With that purpose, I’d like to thank everyone who has added to my life by creating moments that can never be forgotten.

14 Memories

Paper

Crime of the Century

Six of One

Ethics

Six Minutes

Friday Night

Buddy

Eye for an Eye

Book

Reunion

All Rights Reserved

Pleasure

Half Dozen of the Other

Dolphins

As gravity holds matter from flying off into space, so memory gives stability to knowledge; it is the cohesion which keeps things from falling into a lump, or flowing in waves. - Emerson

Paper

The flickering overlapping shadows come from the candle on the bureau. Reverse images of her head swell on the wall while she speaks: No one has ever written me love letters before.

The warmth of her skin presses against his chest and stomach as he lets his cheek rest against the side of her head. Her short hair prickles his chin. The flame’s colors change from orange into yellow into white. Another breeze and another flicker and the shadows dance upon the eggshell-white wall as he opens his eyes wider, letting in the candlelight until he can see nothing but white—whiteness and heat of the sudden sensation her words have forced upon him.

Within that instant, with the burned image against the back of his eyelids, he sees himself as a string of events each clinging to each other until his existence stretches from life’s beginning to a single focused moment across the gap of time. No matter the dust of the future, his words are tightly wrapped in a faded and frayed blue ribbon under the sweat socks in that bureau holding that candle in that candlestick. His letters to her will yellow but will also last and then, on an evening reflective of this one, she will reawaken the memory for one more moment. And regardless of his life or death, their love will be revived with an absolution and forcefulness of a god; all converged together in a distant point which holds no foreboding but conveys a simple and inescapable passion.

It was just a matter of time, he whispers. She exposes her neck from under the sheet to accept his words and the candle’s flame cuts across her face and she exhales as his hand moves down her neck, his fingertips trailing across her smooth skin.

Her toes