Requited

Tyler showed up at rehearsal with a shaved head and white bandage covering most of his white dome, to the astonishment of fellow members in Steel-Toed Kick, his hair-metal band that enjoyed a respectable measure of local renown.

He carefully lifted a corner of the bandage to reveal a tattoo of an imposing-looking crab with threatening claws.

Two weeks later, he rang the doorbell and after a pause he knew to mean she was at the peep-hole, the door was flung open and the young, robed woman's words were spilling rapidly, "So you never wanted to see me again and you show-up on my doorstep with a crab tattoo... me... 'Crabby Gabby' as you called me," and, gazing at the tattoo, tried to stifle a laugh easing the sharp edges of her long-simmering resentment and pain over their break-up.

The gift-wrapped box Tyler concealed was offered in conciliatory fashion, as Gabby's puzzled look alternated between unwrapping the feather-light present and looking into eyes that once adored and devoured her.

She burst into tears as she lifted the beatifully hand-crafted wig from the box, cardboard falling to the ground without notice.


Ty wrapped his arms around her skeletal frame as she wept, cooing her, whispering softly, "I never wanted to see you like this," as he gently caressed the contours of her head, Gabby's scalp bared by chemo and radiation, over a face of hopelessness.