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 to

on my chest

I’ve never

Oh, God…

I had it…

After a

The people I hurt.

The lives I ruined…

Mitch…

Jenny…

would have guessed justice would come from

*****

Richard

if I

matching the one in my own. “Not at all.” He shuffles up, making room for me on

the sweep of the mountain. “Amazing view

this time of the day, when the day warms and the

over the lake, the rising sun slants silver fingers through curling fronds

call it ‘The Breath

“It is indeed.”

over

Charlotte and Elizabeth are sitting with Mitch; trying to stay cheerful; trying to bring her

“… and not succeeding?”

looking at her, but the moment she thinks she’s alone, she just sits, staring

air between his teeth. “Yeah… That’s how I see it too.” He shakes his head. “She’s so unhappy. Who would have ever believed Lawrence Klempner would be mourned

think even

mug, swallows and lets out air. “What we need is something new. Something to break

stop Mitch wondering if she’s been widowed before she was even

“That’s it exactly.”

“Any suggestions?”

a clue. I mean, two new babies in the house and another on the way… If that’s not a distraction, what

“You’ve got me there.”

comes the rumble of a car engine, then the squeak

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