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

hands on my chest once more, “You

I’ve never

Oh, God…

I had it…

had it… I’d gotten there. After a fucking lifetime,

The people I hurt.

The lives I ruined…

Mitch…

Jenny…

justice would come

*****

Richard

I

his hands, steaming in the chill morning air, matching the one in my own. “Not at all.”

sweep of the mountain. “Amazing view

it. Especially this time of the

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

‘The Breath of the Dragon’.

“It is indeed.”

jerks his chin back over

sitting with Mitch; trying to stay cheerful; trying

“… and not succeeding?”

She pastes a smile onto her face when she knows anyone is looking at her, but the moment she thinks she’s alone, she just sits, staring into nothing, stroking her

teeth. “Yeah… That’s how I see it too.” He shakes his head. “She’s so unhappy. Who

think even he would

huffs and nods. “True.” He sucks at his mug, swallows and lets out air. “What we need

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

“That’s it exactly.”

“Any suggestions?”

two new babies in the house and another on the way… If that’s not a distraction,

“You’ve got me there.”

the house comes the rumble of a car engine, then the squeak of brakes. Michael cocks his head,

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