CHICAGO VOICES: An excerpt from “Julia Says She Loves Me, But I Miss You Every Night,” by Robert N. Georgalas

All my life I have been taught to respect the privacy of others. So I do not pry. What people do in their own space and time is their business. And you rarely make friends by intruding where you’re not wanted. Yet, there I was, standing above the desk, captured by the page of crayoned letters, then pulling the small white chair from under the desktop and sitting. As I recall, I had gone into Clothilde’s room to scold her once more for leaving her toys strewn about the house. “Do you want someone to get hurt?” I had planned to say. “I mean, isn’t it dangerous enough that the floors are all tile or stone?” But the room behind the closed door was empty, the curtains drawn against the sun, the pillows and blankets on the bed unruffled. As always, Clothilde had gone somewhere without my notice. And because the dog had not bounded up the stairs after me, yapping at my heels, I suspected Clothilde had taken her along as well.

Robert N. Georgalas’ stories have appeared in Rambunctious Review, Hair Trigger, Urban Spaghetti and other magazines. He is a professor at College of DuPage and a founder of Polyphony Press. “Julia Says She Loves Me, But I Miss You Every Night” first appeared in bowwow magazine.