I'll Come Back

"I’ll come back,” he said. “It will only take a second.” It was a second to him, sure enough. For me, it was a year, not a figurative one either. Forgetful Dan. Can’t remember his glasses, of course he mistakes a digit on the keypad. I didn’t know where he went, he has research sites in the Jurassic, 20th century, and the Middle Ages. Gut wound: disemboweled by a Raptor, sword slash, or knifed by a gangbanger? No, no. I hugged his bloody shirt to me and prayed. His eyes finally opened. To the cry of our four month old.