091313 #trout He jumped down off the counter, amazingly lithe for one so bulky. He said something in some language, something that killed me because it was only meant for her ear, her delicate, perfect, gold-garlanded ear. I had given her those earrings. And now that monster was talking his sawdust-colored words right past them and into her vulnerable, innocent aural cavities. Then he just walked out, whaled on the front door like to bust the little dangling bells right off. And she followed like a leaf aswirl in the invisible wake of a fuming city bus.