Excerpt from the upcoming 2026 book of short stories. Photo CTTO

Take care. 

Those were the last two words Ellie heard from his voicemail. It was spoken with placid uncertainty. 

Take care as in see you later? 

Take care of yourself from now on? 

It wasn’t I-still-care-and/or-love-you or can-we-be-friends kinda take care. 

Nary a ray of sunshine from the east, she sat at an empty bench on top of Dolores Park. The one closest to the train tracks where she hoped for a train to come soon, to drown out the  elegy. The steel slats were wet and cold and no train came to rescue her.

Dylan’s voice was slow, but deliberate, in a low baritone. Maybe a tad rehearsed

“Ellie! “I, um, ah, am sorry for this but I think it is, um, for the best.”

She lowered her head down and bit her tongue. Her stomach churned and her breathing was palpable.

“Um, it’s not working anymore and I, um, cannot um, force you to love, um, me.”

A woman’s voice crackled in the background. A familiar voice. She hated that voice. That whining New York drawl that nasally extends the Eees aaannndd Oooos….

Oh course. It was Jacinta, his mother, whom Ellie refers to her friends as sHADES as in Shay-Dees. 

“Take care!

Bullshit. How can anyone tell someone they are breaking up with and end up being told with these two useless words? 

Pause.

“Click!”

It was 7:45 am on a Sunday. She just got out of her shift from SF General. Still in her aqua scrubs, she realized it was the same bench where they met six years past. The call registered at 7:30, while she was still finishing her rounds. He knew she couldn’t be bothered. It was cold and uncalled for.

 She gripped her phone tight with her right hand for a few seconds, she had the mind to fling it up in the air, but she placed it gently on the seat next to her. 

“Oh Dylan,” she thought, “ I thought you were going to be my forever.” 

Six years for nothing. She looked up at the sky and waited for a sign—something earth-shattering that would alter her life. Suddenly, a single tear streamed down from her left eye to her lips. It tasted sweet and salty. 

A tiny droplet of memory that carried all her hopes and dreams, now dissipated into a tiny stream she couldn’t muster to keep inside. 

She stood up and spit out a large wad of fluid onto the grass. 

“Men are scum!” She screamed. She didn’t care whether someone heard it or not. 

After a long inhale, Ellie turned to the right and walked slowly to her car up the street with her head down. When she was about to start the engine, she noticed the top front of her blouse was wet. She looked outside and raised her left hand, it wasn’t raining. 

Confused, she dabbed the wet blouse with her index finger and tasted it. It was salty.

She felt her face and realized that she had been crying. 

Ellie saw something written on the pavement next to her. There was chalk graffiti in cursive with each word in rainbow colors. 

“Which love did you want? 

The one you want or the one you need?”

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