SUNRISE835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhRJs1SlrDd
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“Honey?”835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGTP5reaN8J
“Rachael, I don’t have the bloody time to – ” Adam drops his cutlery and throws up his hands.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡggM1xmIiri
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Rachael returns back to her breakfast. With a grunt, Adam returns to his.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9KPQDAy2HX
The rest of the meal passes in silence.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ321mMI9lnE
The tall, unshaven man rises from his seat and almost trips on a bottle lying on the floor.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzOV3xybihm
“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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIbANBt6x0O
Biting her lip: “I try.”835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9l6Cgnynol
As if satisfied by his outbreak of force, Adam deflates. “Good.”835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJxioFhB5w7
There’s a pause. “…Honey?”835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTLyEYBUwrX
“For God’s sake, Rachael, what is it?” Adam turns to face his wife.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkZ6Lmi7Xvg
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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLDgPeyCXwk
“What do you think it is?” His reply is throwaway; he barely gives the bag a glance.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeNi0wgnOJg
“Doesn’t it bother you?” She’s sweating: she knows that she might be crossing a line.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb3vkkxiDkY
“Why would it?” His tone of voice already changes; suspicious of her intentions.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGWyPg4KbQT
“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.”835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvRnmfPtUZ1
“…And?” Questioning. Provoking. Is this the man she married twenty years ago?835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8XENZJjoG4
“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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwxKWB1b04Y
For a moment, everything is frozen – but then it happens – the side of his hand coming into contact with her left cheek.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwhhQfBrRS8
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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWiCLcVcgAS
“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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqS8sXRMlPj
Confused, angry, forlorn, ashamed, he curses under his breath. Since when was he like this?835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2geEyqA7tr
He tears the packet open and pours the contents onto his hand before inhaling them, hating yet relishing the sting up his nostrils.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Cz0BDKxl4
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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUYNwcK9GWR
Dazed, he walks up the street.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXUgR26pBEJ
It hasn’t occurred to him yet that it wasn’t his fault.
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He wakes on something soft. Green. Grass?835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmOpxe8VjVk
His stomach returns the breakfast it so willingly accepted earlier that day (yesterday, perhaps?), bile burning his throat as the liquid leaves his mouth.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡttxHXiVSEM
Rachael. Beautiful Rachael. She was upset about something. She’s always upset.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU7b6FCgsIN
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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHgE8DMJFqV
He laughs in relief when he sees her, standing all the way at the top of the hill.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVKpAaJXRjd
Gone are the creases of worry that lined her face, gone are the tears she often cried.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjr4BInIMuo
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?835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQFd3d0DVNJ
“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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDBCGSguQKR
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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFFvWtokmDf
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diende…
~Ad infinitum~835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡolGwqN4ohS
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