SUNRISE811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv5sJ0jB2th
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“Honey?”811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnuAt29Dh2q
“Rachael, I don’t have the bloody time to – ” Adam drops his cutlery and throws up his hands.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDGpEqlwIke
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Rachael returns back to her breakfast. With a grunt, Adam returns to his.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi0Viya6Hyc
The rest of the meal passes in silence.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY6iKBpKPGl
The tall, unshaven man rises from his seat and almost trips on a bottle lying on the floor.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡutgwcKxzTw
“Idiot!” He yells. “Don’t you ever clean this rotten house up?” He kicks at it forcefully and it smashes against the wall, tiny green crystals cascading onto the ground.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4x8dKEaBX4
Biting her lip: “I try.”811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuKe8hv2IJQ
As if satisfied by his outbreak of force, Adam deflates. “Good.”811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZclnfvybUg
There’s a pause. “…Honey?”811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ9CMxndhVA
“For God’s sake, Rachael, what is it?” Adam turns to face his wife.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLHXLYfvskX
Tentatively, she takes a small packet of white powder out from under the table. “…I found this in your pockets after you passed out last night. Adam, what is this?” Her eyes are wide, worried and pleading.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOQxBOy4H00
“What do you think it is?” His reply is throwaway; he barely gives the bag a glance.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2JehRVxUo3
“Doesn’t it bother you?” She’s sweating: she knows that she might be crossing a line.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSgZsjuGcj4
“Why would it?” His tone of voice already changes; suspicious of her intentions.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAY6WmYVuqF
“I mean, for him.” She gestures vaguely to the bedroom at the back of the apartment where their son is still sleeping. “I don’t think all of this is good for him… He scratches himself.”811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVUXltvPnvG
“…And?” Questioning. Provoking. Is this the man she married twenty years ago?811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaHFuy025f9
“I think you shouldn’t drink so much. Or take…” She throws the packet onto the floor. “It’s not good. For you. Or for him.” She gasps, then holds her breath, waiting for the explosion.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyFsr3oQUX7
For a moment, everything is frozen – but then it happens – the side of his hand coming into contact with her left cheek.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡigREJpbt5M
Her cry of pain isn’t registered in Adam’s mind. He’s staring at his hand as if it is somehow dirty, and with a growing feeling of shame he stumbles out of the apartment, but not before grabbing the abandoned bag on the floor.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8iDmT3Ugr6
“S***, I’m sorry, Rachael.” But the words are said long after his leaving, leaving his mouth only when he is sitting on the curb of the path outside.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBDLd7uJFZp
Confused, angry, forlorn, ashamed, he curses under his breath. Since when was he like this?811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxvpOGZ4mDL
He tears the packet open and pours the contents onto his hand before inhaling them, hating yet relishing the sting up his nostrils.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCJ1xRVO6FK
He just wants to forget. In his younger and more vulnerable years his father beat him: and every day he asks himself what he did wrong.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyt7YwWcSel
Dazed, he walks up the street.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyYAKYvr0A0
It hasn’t occurred to him yet that it wasn’t his fault.
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He wakes on something soft. Green. Grass?811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFx4XWHTAMG
His stomach returns the breakfast it so willingly accepted earlier that day (yesterday, perhaps?), bile burning his throat as the liquid leaves his mouth.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ88sXlbeCOk
Rachael. Beautiful Rachael. She was upset about something. She’s always upset.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyHjyHbW8Hb
He gets up onto his knees. “Rachael!” He yells. Where is she? He wants to say something to her. Something he hasn’t said to her for a long time.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9gwUehBOsr
He laughs in relief when he sees her, standing all the way at the top of the hill.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeXXUYV4SHy
Gone are the creases of worry that lined her face, gone are the tears she often cried.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCnN2pJ021w
And, can he see – or is it just his imagination? – just like the first strands of sunlight dancing over the tops of distant mountains, the faintest of smiles lifting the corners of her lips?811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxTgXJL2SwX
“Rachael!” He runs up towards her with all of his dissipating strength, not stopping, not even when his legs protest in pain, he’s rushing towards her open arms, the clouds in the blue sky singing a symphony of joy – he falls into her embrace, feeling her warmth, her happiness, surround him entirely.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFYNmsPxHh8
He whispers into her ear what he never had the courage to say; just a few words, but he can tell how much they mean to her, and finally – finally! – as the sun rises on Icarus Point, her growing smile lights up those final moments, with her laugh outplaying the birds spiraling into the heavens, he knows that she forgives him.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgeD3rOqE29
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diende…
~Ad infinitum~811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuvJ6qNb4bJ
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