The Last Time By Keith Pearson

“You’re here but you’re not here,” she said.

Tom stared at the table.

There was a ring from a beer can on the wood shaped like a small eclipse.

“I’m right here,” he said.

“That’s not what I mean.”

Silence.

Then she said it.

“I can’t do this forever.”

He didn’t answer.

Didn’t know how.

Outside the coyotes started singing.

keith pearson was born and raised in new hampshire and works at a local high school in the math department.