Robert Loting held his coffee cupped in shaking hands. They were big hands, washed clean, but they looked bloody. They had no skin on the knuckles. The coffee was heavily sugared, dark, with no cream. Officer Brighton entered the room followed by another man.
“Hey Bob, sorry about the wait. How you doing?” Robert managed a smile for a moment before the absurdity of ever being happy again slapped it from his face.
“I’m here.”
“Good, good Bob. This is the sketch artist I was telling you about, Neal. You think you’re up to talking to him?”
Robert nodded. Neal reached out his hand. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Robert released his coffee long enough to shake. “So how does this work?”
“Well, I give you and Neal some privacy. He asks you some questions, you watch what he draws, give him input, and you go from there. Don’t worry about rushing this. You just do your best; take your time. If you need anything, you remember where my desk is right? Just down the hall.”
Robert nodded. “He’s going to think I’m crazy.”
“Now, Bob…”
Neal interrupted. “Mr.Loting, I’m not here to judge. I’m just here to draw.”
Officer Brighton nodded. “You just describe what you saw, we’ll worry about the rest later. Deal?”
Robert mumbled around his coffee. “Deal.”
The door to the small room shut and left the two men alone. Neal opened up a case, set out several pens and a large notepad. He sat down.
“So tell me about her.”
Robert flinched. “I thought I was going to describe… to describe… him… it.”
Neal picked up a charcoal pencil. “Not yet. Lets loosen you up a little. How long were you together?”
Robert clung to his coffee. “Four years.”
“Married?”
“No. She was divorced. Said that being married ruined everything. She didn’t want to do it again.”
“Sounds reasonable.”
“She was too reasonable sometimes. Practical, you know? Had her feet grounded in reality. She never would have believed…”
Neal started sketching. “She was attractive?”
“What… well, yeah, I thought so. She was a health nut, ridiculously thin. Not everybody was into how she looked, so brittle. I loved it. I liked thinking she was fragile.”
“Her hair?”
“Short. You know, modern girl.”
Neither man looked at one another. Neal sketched quickly and Robert watched a bubble skirt the lip of his coffee like a child clinging to the edge of a pool.
“How did you meet her?”
“A party.”
“Did you two go to a lot of parties?”
“Yeah, we did. She went to more. She’s more, what’s the other –verted? Not introverted, like inside, the other one.”
“Extroverted.”
“Yeah, extroverted. I always forget that one. It reminds me of a bug. Like exoskeleton.”
“So she was out a lot.”
“Yeah. I used to think she was a social butterfly, but after a while, I just couldn’t see her that way. She was just a fly, going from one shit party to another.”
“How did that make you feel?”
“Fuck man, how do you think? I just wanted to be with her and she was never in the right spot.”
“That must have been difficult.”
Robert shook his head. Took a long drink of coffee. “No, not really. I loved her, you know. Her head was all fucked up. Like there was a tangle of crossed phone lines, nothing really making sense. You can love someone even if they’re messed up you know.”
“I know.”
“You can love people through just about anything.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“What can’t you love them through?”
Robert set down the empty coffee cup. He leaned over and rubbed his eyes with a thumb. “When they crush your spirit. When they do that, then you’ve got nothing left to love with. You can’t help anybody when they’ve broken your soul’s bones and it can’t fly anymore, let alone carry them. When that happens, it’s over. Then you’re both gone.”
Neal put down his pencil, pushed his chair back from the table.
“I’ve heard enough. I think we’re done here.”
“But I haven’t described it yet! The thing that killed her! We were just talking about Alice. What the hell were you drawing?”
Neal closed the notepad and stood. “Don’t worry about it Bob. I think I’ve got a good enough sketch.”
________________________
This sketch is from a guy named Alan Campbell and more of his art can be found at http://emohoc.deviantart.com/ He mostly does model photography and photoshop composites of girls. But hey, this is a nice little deviation that I enjoyed quite a bit!
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