home run

discovered

Christmas had come and gone and it was hectic for the both Leigh and Anthony. Between the Christmas Eve they spent at Michael and Kate's, watching Christmas movie classics and admiring their tree, and then Christmas Day with their respective families, by the time New Years Eve rolled into view, Leigh was slogging through a brutal cold that left her weak and lazier than ever. She encouraged Anthony to go to Miami for New Years to spend it with his friends that he hadn't seen in the offseason yet. He was loath to go but she drove him to O'Hare while clutching a tissue box and saw him off. She knew that he was probably going to spend the next two weeks completely obliterated, so she refused to kiss him and get him sick. He did hold her for a long time at the gate before he left, tucking her face into his neck and finding excuse after excuse to not let her go.

After New Years, she began to recover but wandered around the apartment like a ghost, bored and raving from cabin fever, since she had already asked Michael for time off from the BBQ to recover.

Anthony seemed far away. Further than when she was in South Africa. Whenever Leigh laid in his bed, her stomach felt empty and her skin felt too tight, so she stayed at home with Michael and visited Anthony's to water his plants.

One night she stayed at Anthony's, too lazy to catch the bus back to the apartment and set up camp in the front room, on the couch.

She laid there, watching the curtains dance as the hot air rushed through them from the heat register and noted the unique yellow color that the sodium lights gave the Chicago night. The air outside seemed quiet, the snow muffling distant car noises. Leigh loved the quiet but at the moment, it was too much. She rolled over onto her back and turned on the TV to distract her from how strange she felt.

When Leigh woke up, it was easy for her to blame last night on her recovery from the cold that had grounded her from the trip to Miami with Anthony. The house was so, so empty without him. She wondered if this was how he felt while she was away.

The early afternoon light paired with the tea she made herself fueled her with motivation to create something. She momentarily mourned the fact that she didn't have homework to do but set out anyway.

After dressing, she slung her video camera over her shoulder and opted out of the tripod, which would only burden her. Since leaving, Anthony left her his Tesla while he was gone but Leigh decided to take a risk by using public transportation on the balmy in late December 26° weather. While on the El, Leigh closed her eyes and let the train take her to the familiar path to the loop where she went to school. Instead of going, however, Leigh went to the Art Institute and crept through the halls.

The marble floors gave the building a cathedral like feeling and she was so distracted and delighted by the art on the walls that she almost forgot to film. She would not be filming the paintings, of course, but the floor. Specifically, she set the camera on the floor and let it record the footsteps of people walking past, pausing, and continuing their walk. It was so quiet that Leigh captured every click and clack on the mediocre audio her camera captured and let it lull her into forgetting how she had felt the night before.

She got home earlier than she expected so she took the opportunity to write, stretching her legs out on the floor of their front room, flopping onto her belly with one of her endless notebooks from the shelf she now kept in the office. Soft music played from her phone that she put on the coffee table next to her and the words poured out of her and onto the notebook pages, her hand cramping from the exertion she showed. Plans and action sequences printed themselves onto the paper. When she finally took a break to massage her writing hand and drink some water, the sun had set in the sky and her stomach ached with literal emptiness.