Cloud Explains Infinity
Minnie loved Cloud from the moment they touched. Cloud had an energy within her that electrified everything. And she was not like a charming man whose electrification stunned his prey. Cloud's energy was an empowering one. It made Minnie feel, quite irrevocably, that the sky was no limit at all.
When they met, the other woman was bald from chemotherapy. Now her prematurely white hair crowned her as a storm cloud might a mountaintop. Minnie wished she could be struck by Cloud's lightning every day.
"So," Minnie said, "Here's how it has to be. To adopt Noah, we get married. I think that would be good. I'm all he has now, unofficial aunt or not. And he likes you and I need you and I think you wouldn't mind."
"I don't have a mind that could possibly mind," Cloud replied. "But I know what you're going to ask, and I have a story to tell before you do."
"It's very short. The fishing boat is frozen in the ice. Open water is near but at the same time too far. The captain worries, is sick to death with worry, but what can be done? Yet if he knew infinity, really knew it, it would be obvious that on a speck of dust, there really is no here or there at all. So yes, I'll come to live with you at your house, and sell this one, and Noah can stay in his home, in his room, and not feel he is leaving anyone behind."
Minnie poured more tea for Cloud. Below and beyond where they sat in Cloud's sunroom, a fishing boat lay frozen in the water. Minnie felt the tears start their journey to her face. She had no idea what Cloud meant, yet at that moment she loved her as if she did, and it was a love too big for words, and she even felt it for the frozen boat.
5 March 2022
Texas Jim
Hacketts Cove, Nova Scotia
www.granitecoast.ca