When he saw Valerie’s car parked behind the inn, Dennis felt a great relief. Despite her promises over the phone, he hadn’t really believed she would show up. It was only four but already dark on this January afternoon. As he pulled into a space three down from her car, he realized she was still sitting in the driver’s seat. He rushed over and pulled open her door, eager to embrace her. She did not get out, pointing past him.
Walter Cummins has published approximately 100 stories in such magazines as Kansas Quarterly, Other Voices, Crosscurrents, Florida Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Confrontation, and on the Internet. His previous story collections are titled Witness and Where We Live.