SUNRISE810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjXByRzXRAP
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“Honey?”810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbfTWr0MeGh
“Rachael, I don’t have the bloody time to – ” Adam drops his cutlery and throws up his hands.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWgOgtFqgjc
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Rachael returns back to her breakfast. With a grunt, Adam returns to his.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSvTJi3cXlz
The rest of the meal passes in silence.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfZbRVPV4Si
The tall, unshaven man rises from his seat and almost trips on a bottle lying on the floor.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ82Z5qpjBUS
“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.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcGaDL9PsBt
Biting her lip: “I try.”810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy85pWXI5iw
As if satisfied by his outbreak of force, Adam deflates. “Good.”810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmj3stU9loI
There’s a pause. “…Honey?”810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjqb0lJ6OJB
“For God’s sake, Rachael, what is it?” Adam turns to face his wife.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmyIxhxPqxS
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.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv9cJU9q84e
“What do you think it is?” His reply is throwaway; he barely gives the bag a glance.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi7yBFy4Yrh
“Doesn’t it bother you?” She’s sweating: she knows that she might be crossing a line.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlKEnS9lvA5
“Why would it?” His tone of voice already changes; suspicious of her intentions.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP1QgdSoVjb
“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.”810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLhmeRzb98t
“…And?” Questioning. Provoking. Is this the man she married twenty years ago?810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ74FMv6Ttqk
“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.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyLanp8IW1v
For a moment, everything is frozen – but then it happens – the side of his hand coming into contact with her left cheek.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbLWYtEQEXa
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.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxYFRmwLHb5
“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.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTFX7plbW3G
Confused, angry, forlorn, ashamed, he curses under his breath. Since when was he like this?810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzAYrJN5mw5
He tears the packet open and pours the contents onto his hand before inhaling them, hating yet relishing the sting up his nostrils.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv2GYaMu1kD
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.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZXpJqG4s8u
Dazed, he walks up the street.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0cMddyDESV
It hasn’t occurred to him yet that it wasn’t his fault.
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He wakes on something soft. Green. Grass?810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjxDApDQaMw
His stomach returns the breakfast it so willingly accepted earlier that day (yesterday, perhaps?), bile burning his throat as the liquid leaves his mouth.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPNzvIYTvGH
Rachael. Beautiful Rachael. She was upset about something. She’s always upset.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVC0mTR8HAg
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.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkw7cgXQUtp
He laughs in relief when he sees her, standing all the way at the top of the hill.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKSyIFk98pE
Gone are the creases of worry that lined her face, gone are the tears she often cried.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvJEsoC1OxT
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?810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGdCnCNOgqG
“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.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRHJmfO02KB
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.810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsUuCkCX3Kz
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diende…
~Ad infinitum~810Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlrfKmyFKAF
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