Interlude

He stood at the corner, as the beeping crosswalk droned on, telling him that it was not safe to cross the street yet. He reached around and tapped the button again. A robotic voice interrupted the beep and said "Wait."

Even with the dark sunglasses, he found himself squinting in the early evening sun, which glowed overhead in a cloudless sky. While he was not sweating yet, a fact which surprised him given the fact that it was 92 degrees and he had already walked a block to the corner, he felt the familiar dampness and tingle of beads of perspiration start to form underneath his arms.

The beeping had stopped, replaced by the robotic voice, stating, "Auburn Way North, Crosswalk is Open..."

As he stepped off the curb, a hot wind washed over his body, making him feel as if he were naked and had just stepped into a hot shower, despite the fact that he was still wearing his dress slacks, shirt, and tie that he had put on in the morning, before getting the boys off to their Grandparents and gently carressing his wife's half-dressed, slumbering form with the lightest of touches for nearly twenty minutes before she awoke to see the time. The memory of the deep, low moans the touches elicted from her sleeping body and the slight smile on her lips as she saw the clock, but could not bring herself to be angry with him was echoed in the smile that came to his own countenance. The wind stopped and he again felt the oppressive weight of the sun pressing down on him as he crossed the street on the way to get the Claratin she had called and asked him to pick up before their date that night.

He softly laughed as he marveled at the extraordinary stress the two seemed to cause each other, yet he knew, deep in his heart, there was a smoldering ember of affection that she harbored still, that with time, effort, and great care, could be fanned once more into a roaring conflugration. This mated to the realization that he would do anything for her in his power that she asked him to do. These paired thoughts stopped all other ones from racing through his head, as he continued on his way to the store, his shoes clicking in a moderate, even rhythym on the sidewalk below his feet.