Ben Ebner

Cold barbed wire

Hi John,

Don’t be a stranger, you said in your last mail, and it made me think about the other night, when I woke up, and it was as if someone had just called my name, in the dark.

I stepped to the window, and through the half-folded blinds I could see a light beaming from the fourth floor, across the backyard. When I looked down, I saw it pinch my hands like cold barbed wire.

And it was then, for just a moment, that I felt like these hands belonged to someone else; like this entire life had been lived by a stranger that just happened to look like me.

God, I don’t know.

It was great working with you, is all I wanted to say, really.

Take care,
—Beth