Her howling was unbearable.  It was tragic.  Shrill.  I wished she would go away.  But she didn’t, she persisted.  Tried to walk into traffic.  A man had to stop her.  She was insane.  I decided to leave.I rolled up my yoga mat, put on my shoes, and walked back to the community house.  It was empty and cold, I decided to meditate.  I had been meditating for a few minutes when she came in.  She was quiet.  Her steps were slow.  She tried unsuccessfully to walk the wooden floor without it creaking.  “I’m sorry,” she said to me from the kitchen.  I remained silent.  In meditation, I should not have heard.  She opened and slammed drawers.  She drew water from the faucet.  The wood creaked as she walked slowly from the kitchen.  She was going to pass behind me.  This made me nervous.  I wondered if she had a knife.  “You have nothing to be sorry for,” I said and twisted around.  She was a middle-aged woman.  Blond gray hair stuck to her wet face.  She held a pitcher of water between her shaking hands.  “I’m not wearing any underwear,” she said.  I nodded in a meditative sort of way.  She sat down on a couch.  “He betrayed me,” she said.

“Who?”

“I went to his house and no one was home, wanted him to know I had been there.  Tried to break a window.  Didn’t want the dog to get cut, picked one where he couldn’t get to.  Punched it three, four times, couldn’t break it.  God I’m thirsty.  Haven’t had a drink in so long.”  She dipped her right hand into the pitcher and made the sign of the cross.  Forehead to chest, right shoulder to left.  Dipped her hand in again and splashed water on me.  “Can you believe those Baptists?  The window wouldn’t break.”  She put her wet ring, middle and index fingers into her mouth and sucked.  She pulled them out and smiled.  “It wouldn’t break so I opened the door.  The dog was happy to see me.  I love that fucking dog.  Found a can opener.  Went out to the bitch’s Volvo and tried to bust the window with it, but it wouldn’t break.  So I opened the door and left it in the driver’s seat.  Now they’re gonna wonder ‘Where is the can opener? How did it get in the driver’s seat?’  Last week I found a beer on top of my car.  Funny how things come full circle.”