“We can pretend.”
“And go in the back way as we did before?”
“Yes.”
“That is good. Come.”
She placed her hand within his and they turned down the alley which led to the back street facing the water front. The lights still blinked in the mist––the waves still pounded against the stone walls throwing up salt spray, but they no longer came from out an unfathomable distance. They seemed like very petty waves and the two knew the boundaries, before and back of them, as they had not before.
“Now,” she said, “run––run for all you’re worth!”
She led the pace, he falling back to keep with her instead of dragging her on. So they ran until they were breathless. Then as before they moved a-tiptoe.
They knew the little door when they reached it.
“I must break it in again,” he said.
So she stood back while he threw his weight against it, meeting it with his shoulders. She watched him with a thrill––her heart leaping with every thud of his body against the wood. It was her man forcing a path for her,––her man beating down a barrier. She felt the sting of the wind-driven spray against her cheek, but the depths from which it came no longer called to her. Rather they drove her in. She was content 353 to be here with her man. Life opened big to her from just where she stood.