I wrote her name, **Naoko**, against the double-sided panel of my window and watched the rain through the letters where my fingers once were. I have imagined tracing the same letters, in a a calligraphy only I know, on her skin. How I long to be with her – to lay my hands against her soft shoulders, to press my eager fingers against the balls of her feet, to love each toe so gently.
*~ And all this devotion was rushing over me // And the questions I have for a sinner like me // But the arms of the ocean deliver me ~*
I sway, whilst listening to a track that made me think of her, how I’d love to wrap myself around her, our foreheads touching, as we sink into the freezing cold Pacific. But all I have is this cup of coffee, where she runs in circles, circles, circles.
**xxxxx**
I heard her pull over the drive way.
*Thwop. Blam. Jingle-Jangle.*
Wet, soggy steps softly approached our cabin’s door. Three knocks – I swung it open, and there she was, cold, drenched, shivering.