His makeup case hasn’t been opened for over a year now. This will be a careful search, delayed for almost two years. He is in here.

The first red lipstick is the same color as the blood I found on his bathroom and kitchen floors after he passed. The next tube is a neutral shade, the color of our skin, his and mine. Another red, the color of his liver, a darker one the hepatitis C virus in his body.

All remind me of the wine I pleaded with him to not drink. He is in here, I am sure.

 

~Pat Horner is a painter/collage artist and writer exhibited and published in the US and abroad—and publisher and editor at the “The Woodstock Guide.” Pat’s also writing fiction and memoir from Woodstock, NY. This piece is an excerpt from The Case by Pat Horner 2016.

Visit Pat’s Website Here.