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

chest once more, “You want

I’ve never

Oh, God…

I had it…

had it… I’d gotten there. After

The people I hurt.

The lives I ruined…

Mitch…

Jenny…

justice would come from

*****

Richard

if I join

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

of

time of the day,

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

call it ‘The Breath of the Dragon’.

“It is indeed.”

over his

with Mitch; trying to stay cheerful; trying

“… and not succeeding?”

onto her face when she knows anyone is looking at her, but the moment she thinks she’s alone, she just sits, staring

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

don’t think even

“True.” He sucks at his mug, swallows and lets out

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

“You’ve got me there.”

the

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