All Chapters of When the Evening Wind Dies: Chapter 11

I saw Simone again on an afternoon two years later.Clara and I fed pigeons in the square. She was five months pregnant, wearing a loose maternity dress, eating ice cream and laughing without a care. I crouched in front of her, tying her shoes."Slow down with that. You would upset your stomach."I looked up and pressed a quick kiss to her knuckles.That was when I felt someone watching me. I looked up and saw Simone standing by the fountain.Two years aged her considerably. Gray crept into her temples. She was thin, wearing an ordinary gray trench coat, a folded newspaper in her hand.She stood perfectly still, looking at me, at Clara's belly, at the way I held Clara close. The last light in her eyes went out.Her lips parted as if to call my name. When she saw me help Clara to her feet, wrap my arm around her waist, and press a kiss to her forehead, something in her seemed to collapse.She stumbled backward, nearly colliding with a tourist behind her.I looked at her calmly,