Nine-volt

Two terminals, polarized and perfectly spaced for tongues to test their charge. Fresh from the package, all it took was a word, a glance, a wayward sigh. She went out of her way to provide the situation and the need. He responded with scientific curiosity. Sometimes they both felt the unseen arc. She usually cried. He generally laughed.

Later, it took more. Plugged into the wall charger then released to go back into the machine. But the lithium seemed to leak, flattening his affect and her desire to change it. Things became easier. The machine still did its job, probably more effectively than before. But effective was just another word for efficient, and efficient does not apply to a nine-volt.

Later still, before they’d say anything about it, before he’d grab the needle-nose pliers and try to squeeze them back into original shape, they both felt the terminals loosening in their plastic. The edges splayed like a wilting flower too open to the sun that kills it even as it sustains. Neither was into language anymore, but both saw the metaphor and its aptitude.