Heart the Lover

by Lily King

‘Have you read that story “The Last Fall” by Ray Hart, about a guy who stays at college for an extra semester?’ ‘Do tell. The plot sounds positively riveting.’ ‘It’s beautiful. All his friends are gone and he sees the back of the neck of an old girlfriend in class and marvels at the feelings he once had for her and he’s got this housemate who only plays an album called Country Greats and the leaves are falling and the cold is coming and he has this thing with another girl that’s not really serious but there’s this gorgeous moment next to a soccer field when she fastens and unfastens a button on his jacket.’ I can’t read the expression on Yash’s face. ‘It’s just this long tender farewell to youth.’ ‘I’d like to read it,’ he says, and nothing else. No quip, no barb. ‘I haven’t done it justice.’