The key…

I dream about that fucking key.

It hangs on its nail. When she’s here and the light’s on full, the tarnished brass a dull yellow: winking golden-green when it’s just me and the lighting’s reduced. The camera light blinks reflections from it:

On… Off… On… Off…

Occasionally I find myself staring at it, counting the blinks… 27… 28… 29…

It’s not as if there’s anything better to do. When a blinking light is the highlight of the entertainment…

933… 934… 935…

Christ!

Am I so reduced that I can reach 1,000 without even realising I was getting there?

Think of something else…

What?

Something good…

A good memory…

Mitch…

When I first knew you…

She dances for me… Kicking off her heels, in her bare feet, she dances.

She wears a dress in teal-green silk, which rustles and whispers as she moves. And her long hair is a cloud of red around her as she sways and shimmies to the music, her green eyes shining.

She reaches for me, her long pale arms outstretched, and laughing for sheer joy. Taking her in my arms, one hand at her shoulder, the other nested at the base of her spine, we dance smoothly and slowly to the quiet, easy music.

So close to me, she smells of that perfume she wears. It rises from within the silk like a drug, and like a drugged man, I stoop to lift her and to carry her to the bed...

It all went wrong… so quickly… so soon after that…

All my fault…

You ran from me for years…

And then…

Miracle…

gave yourself

hands on my chest once more, “You want

never wanted anything

Oh, God…

I had it…

there. After a

The people I hurt.

The lives I ruined…

Mitch…

Jenny…

justice would come from

*****

Richard

if I join

matching the one in my

down the sweep of the mountain. “Amazing view

never get tired of looking at it. Especially this time of

Below us, over the lake, the rising sun slants silver fingers through curling fronds of mist. As we watch, it billows and rises, like the breathing of

Breath of

“It is indeed.”

chin back over his shoulder.

Mitch; trying to stay cheerful; trying to bring her out of

“… and not succeeding?”

her face when she knows anyone is looking at her, but the moment she thinks she’s alone, she just sits, staring into nothing,

I see it too.” He shakes his head. “She’s so unhappy. Who

think even he

his mug, swallows and lets out air. “What we need is

she’s been widowed before she was even

“That’s it exactly.”

“Any suggestions?”

babies in the house and another on

“You’ve got me there.”

engine, then the squeak

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