16. Reaching voice and unreachable with a voice
This one night, when he arrives home, it is very dark, and the only light in the front hall shines from her lovely eyes. The two of them embrace without a word before she takes his coat and he bends to let the dog take a cursory sniff at his hands.
In the humble kitchen he finds a mug of tea and a note: Welcome back, it says in her exact and even script. I love you.
He turns and looks at her; she is standing behind his shoulder, as she has always done, and he loves her so deeply that for a brief and dazzling instant he believes that his heart might break.
He cannot speak yet; but even without words, without touching, they are far from silent. Even across the room, their eyes have done all the talking.