The Binding

by Bridget Collins

To feel nothing, or to grieve for something you no longer remembered? Surely when you forgot, you’d forget to be sad, or what was the point?

Well, knowledge is always a kind of magic, I suppose.

Unexpectedly, as sudden as the flood of sunlight, he smiles at me. It changes his face completely. I can’t remember anyone looking at me like that, ever. It makes the sunset redder, the scent of soot and paraffin sharper, the cold ache in my fingers more intense.