SUNRISE814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEHH8aREI1u
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“Honey?”814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4kACW6wGg7
“Rachael, I don’t have the bloody time to – ” Adam drops his cutlery and throws up his hands.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYGBrtNYnOb
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Rachael returns back to her breakfast. With a grunt, Adam returns to his.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAXv6jVPsss
The rest of the meal passes in silence.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlGrsWeM4vA
The tall, unshaven man rises from his seat and almost trips on a bottle lying on the floor.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOHYHP1gm0y
“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.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAWRFm8GCoJ
Biting her lip: “I try.”814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9AhQCum1j1
As if satisfied by his outbreak of force, Adam deflates. “Good.”814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJFXddB66JV
There’s a pause. “…Honey?”814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡriDKSPUfKy
“For God’s sake, Rachael, what is it?” Adam turns to face his wife.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVo1w2NwBmo
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.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9RybInAfZg
“What do you think it is?” His reply is throwaway; he barely gives the bag a glance.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2dBary2AbM
“Doesn’t it bother you?” She’s sweating: she knows that she might be crossing a line.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLZC6hqOerY
“Why would it?” His tone of voice already changes; suspicious of her intentions.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡykzCkydvo6
“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.”814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfhEhitW47L
“…And?” Questioning. Provoking. Is this the man she married twenty years ago?814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsye8vbIoRx
“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.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWDua4zFqKE
For a moment, everything is frozen – but then it happens – the side of his hand coming into contact with her left cheek.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtrZJaRE44w
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.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGlGPnrmp7T
“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.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2ysPWwStuu
Confused, angry, forlorn, ashamed, he curses under his breath. Since when was he like this?814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHL458pkrX4
He tears the packet open and pours the contents onto his hand before inhaling them, hating yet relishing the sting up his nostrils.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5qzhWWM1Ml
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.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ69gyS0w7T0
Dazed, he walks up the street.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEdkR15a0Zb
It hasn’t occurred to him yet that it wasn’t his fault.
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He wakes on something soft. Green. Grass?814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRpDIL2gJIu
His stomach returns the breakfast it so willingly accepted earlier that day (yesterday, perhaps?), bile burning his throat as the liquid leaves his mouth.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ5wKs70FLJ
Rachael. Beautiful Rachael. She was upset about something. She’s always upset.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFtFMKmKuJL
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.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd6lJBRiYEq
He laughs in relief when he sees her, standing all the way at the top of the hill.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlaDSs1lvkq
Gone are the creases of worry that lined her face, gone are the tears she often cried.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmiJxvllkjt
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?814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI7ONKze0GJ
“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.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7VdBZkrER3
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.814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF7KNiz4tuL
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diende…
~Ad infinitum~814Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHitio6cwrg
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