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Back Triangle Save as PDF
Contents (22)
  1. Additional Praise for Triangle
  2. Shirt
  3. Contents
  4. Part One
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Part Two
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Part Three
  20. Fourteen
  21. Fifteen
  22. Also by Katharine Weber

da capo

This time I crawl up the stairs and I go to that door I struggled so much to get through a moment before. The door has been locked on the inside, the key is still in the lock, the key from Jacobs. He has locked this door so nobody can find me and he doesn’t care about anything else, and I unlock this door, and I go back into the fire, and I go back through all the flames and the smoke, and I call out to them, I call out to my sister and to Sam, because I can’t see them in the darkness, and I can’t breathe and I call out, Wait, wait for me, don’t leave me alone, Vart…vart…farlawzt meer nisht alain. Dorch der fire ich kum tsu deer…Don’t go, I’m coming to you, wait, vart, vart far meer. My sister, she calls out to me, and I follow her voice, and I see her then, standing by the window in the black smoke, and I go to her, my beautiful sister with her beautiful smile, and the window in the corner is broken, and Sam is there, standing on the ledge, and he is helping girls. And the music swells once more and the chorus sings its final celebration, culminating in a strangely triumphant This, this, this is what happened. This is what happened. This is what happened. The orchestra soars into big punctuating chords of affirmation, a grand, swelling, joyful, noble, reverent new music, imbued with sadness and love and joy.

Sam helps three girls step up onto the sill, one at a time, and it is very narrow, not such an easy place to stand, and the flames are all around us now, and he helps each one of the girls get up to the sill, he holds out a gentle hand, and he helps her stand up straight and calm and steady, and then he lets go each one of them, and each girl falls away, one after the other, with Sam to help them, three times he does this. And then Sam says to me, Pauline, are you ready? And he reaches to help me step up onto the ledge, and I take his hand and I step up, and then he says to my sister, Esther, my love, my wife, are you ready, and he helps her to step up, and he takes her arms and he puts them around his neck like to hold on in the ocean, and he puts one of his arms around me, and she kisses me on one side, and he kisses me on the other side, and then they kiss each other, and we are together, I am not alone, they are with me, we will always be together, and then we jump.

Also by Katharine Weber

Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear

The Music Lesson

The Little Women

TRIANGLE. Copyright © 2006 by Katharine Weber. All rights reserved. For information, address Picador, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.