Top of the Sky - Love of my Life
“I love you,” Madeleine whispers, her voice is cracking with the last words, and she lowers a rose to the fresh earth. The delicate petals touch the ground.
Slowly she stands up, holding her big belly with one hand she has to hold the child inside her as if it is the only thing that still connects her to him. Tears keep running down her cheeks and the wind blows in her face, almost trying to carry the pain away, but the pain remains. It envelops her like a cold, gray cloak.
“You... are such an asshole, Charles!” she screams, the words shattering against the hazy silence of the afternoon. “Such a fucking ASSHOLE!”
The echo of her screams fades as the crows, startled by the noise, scatter across the gray sky. Their cawing sounds like a shrill echo, tearing her anger, her disappointment apart in the air. The world around them seems to stand still, only the incessant cawing of the birds breaking the heavy silence.
The cold crawls across the ground, creeps under her clothes, pierces her skin and takes hold of her heart. She feels the warmth fleeing from her body, as if everything she knew about herself is disappearing into the earth. What remains is only the emptiness, the bitter cold that remains anchored in her - a feeling of disappointment and brokenness that gnaws deep inside her.
Her hand unconsciously moves to her stomach, trying to feel the child that is still growing inside her. But even this small comfort cannot banish the cold. The world is no longer what it used to be, and she wonders how she can go on without Charles.
The crows finally disappear, and silence falls again, but it is a different silence now.
One that feels heavy and final.