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…

yourself

chest once more, “You

I’ve 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

turns, a mug cradled in his hands, steaming in the chill morning air, matching the one in my own. “Not at all.” He shuffles up, making room for me on the

of the mountain. “Amazing

get tired of looking at it. Especially this time of

fronds of mist. As we watch, it billows and rises,

continues… “…They used to call it ‘The Breath of the Dragon’. It’s

“It is indeed.”

chin back over his shoulder. “How is

trying to stay cheerful; trying to bring her

“… and not succeeding?”

smile onto her face when she knows anyone is looking at her, but the moment she

how I see it too.” He shakes his head. “She’s so unhappy. Who would have ever believed Lawrence

think even

his mug, swallows and lets out air. “What

she’s been widowed before she

“That’s it exactly.”

“Any suggestions?”

the house and

“You’ve got me there.”

somewhere beyond the house comes the rumble of a car engine, then the squeak of brakes. Michael cocks his head, listening. “Visitors?

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