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Afternoon Desperation

Eck sat at his desk. He noted just then how a beam of sun had passed, shading his blue typewriter a darker blue. The chatter of his son weaved child’s talk into his reverie about light and shadow, dust columns and wrinkled paper. He lifted his hand and let it travel through the slanted division of morning and afternoon.

“Da!” The red-faced child crawled around the corner.

“I’m sorry, Honey.” Eck’s wife swept the baby off the floor, whispering something about Daddy’s work.

Until the stars wheeled into view, he toyed with this phrase: The passage of time is loss.

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