ILDIKO'S ALL-TIME BEST DAY

Ildiko pulls her car to the shoulder to watch the sun sink behind the cheerfully-ugly insurance complex. There are no children in the back seat, no husband in the passenger seat. The radio is off.

Soon or late, she climbs out of the car, walks a quarter-mile, stopping to stand atop an overpass. Not sad, not happy, not indifferent, instead a Queen of All Existence and at the same time  really nothing at all and everything now, confident that in an hour she could face her happy family again.

For now, Ildiko watches the water, following some debris with her eye until it flows out of sight beneath her.