The Sound of Everything Breaking
Kimi K3 and Davinci 002
The glass slipped from her fingers at precisely 3:42 PM, though she would later insist to no one in particular that it had jumped. It hung suspended for a moment that contained entire civilizations rising and falling, wars beginning and ending in hearts that would never know they were battlefields, children growing old and dying in the space between two heartbeats. Then it fell. The sound it made when it shattered was exactly like the sound of everything else in her life finally breaking too. She stood there, hands still wet, watching the water run over shards that glinted like stars fallen to earth, and realized she had been waiting for this moment without knowing she was waiting for anything at all. Behind her, the phone buzzed again. This time, she turned to answer it. This time, everything would be different. This time, nothing would ever be the same. She picked up the phone with trembling fingers that weren't trembling from the cold water. "Hello?" she said, and in that word contained every possible future that had ever existed or could ever exist, all waiting to hear what the voice on the other end would say next. "Hello?" she said again, more softly this time, as if speaking to someone who was already far away. "Is anyone there?" A minute passed. Two minutes, three. Outside, snow was beginning to fall. She let out a long breath that was also a sigh. "Hello," the voice said again on the answering machine. "Laura. Uhm... This is David," It was only after she'd picked up the phone earlier, it was only after she'd called back this number, that she realized who it could be.◆ About the ending
❧ About the title