Listen instead: part 1        part 2part 3 The next morning, Tanya made it to the bus stop even earlier than normal, having walked there quickly and with an uncharacteristic determination in her step.  It wasn’t quite the expectation that she’d see him, or another photograph; she found herself feeling something she hadn’t felt since she was a girl.  Hope.  Sheer, blind, disconnected hope.  Hope for something unknown.  That innocent desire that brings a flutter to the chest and a heaviness to the belly.  An anxious, slippery hope…which the bearer knows could just as easily turn to disappointment.  So tenuous.  So fragile.  So delicious. Her gaze quickly flitted to…

Listen instead: part 1        part 2part 3 The time at work couldn’t pass fast enough, and as she half walked, half ran to meet her bus, she nervously considered taking a different route, to avoid any possibility of bumping into the stranger.  It was a strange feeling – wanting to confront him and wanting to avoid him at the same time. When the bus rolled to a stop, the doors opened and passengers poured onto the sidewalk around her.  She waited until the entrance was clear and then ascended the three stairs, glancing skittishly to the back of the bus.  Her stomach tightened and released, expanding with a…

Listen instead: part 1        part 2part 3 Tanya was a pretty, yet plain woman.  The only thing that set her apart from the crowd was her hair — a fiery orange-red and naturally curly.  She kept it long only because she had no other choice.  If she cut it, she’d be sporting an afro, which would look odd atop her 5’7″, 140 pound, translucently pale and abundantly freckled frame.  She wore simple, dark clothing and avoided patterns, figuring her hair was resplendent enough.  Even her eyes seem to know better and kept themselves to a light gray most days. She worked downtown as a legal secretary (not the…