A car door had slammed out on the street a minute before; that was the only reason he heard the soft knock at the door.
At this hour of the morning there was silence. No one else was fool enough to be up this early. S had been up this early. Most often, she was just falling asleep due to the insomnia and body aches that kept her restless.
He wondered if it might be her at the door. Whenever there was an unexpected knock, he always hoped it might be her, but he’d fallen out of the habit as the years passed.
When he left, she was seeing someone else. He’d said all the right things, but he was shattered. He knew he was a fool to have felt the jealousy and the anger, but he couldn’t help how he felt. Still, he didn’t want to interfere with her life.
He’d put the money in the account, and emailed her the access information, telling her if she was ever interested in taking the shot they hadn’t had to withdraw the money and buy a plane ticket to wherever he was. She said he was ridiculous – she’d said that often – but he had insisted. That had been ten years ago.
He checked the account from time to time, and they had stayed in contact, although that too had slackened over the years.
His anticipation at random knocks on the door had faded as the money continued to sit untouched and he was met with another set of Jehovah’s Witnesses or someone from the electric company asking him to switch to wind power.
As the soft knock came again, nervous anticipation raised the hair on his arms. Two days before he’d checked the account and the money had been gone.
