o c e a n

One of us two with tortured heart half broken,
Shall read long-treasured letters through salt tears
Patrick White

Theodora dreamed of her lover.
Her husband had left her for another.
Her lover had decided to do the same.
Theodora was alone and feeling quite lost. But somehow, she believed that studying the words of someone or other ... that reading books ... would help her regain a sense of balance.

Lately Theodora had been hallucinating rats and mice.
Her therapist said it was nothing, but Theodora was not convinced. She thought it was all her childhood fears conspiring to steal her sanity.

A muffled plane bell didn't quite ding, as if it was shy, perhaps. Theodora returned to the sea of words before her. A novel by ...
O what was his name?