SUNRISE826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxnIeU9m81e
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“Honey?”826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6LrxaeYP07
“Rachael, I don’t have the bloody time to – ” Adam drops his cutlery and throws up his hands.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNHTRKKBHgF
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Rachael returns back to her breakfast. With a grunt, Adam returns to his.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkXXx0acoIX
The rest of the meal passes in silence.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1NNbb4aMNM
The tall, unshaven man rises from his seat and almost trips on a bottle lying on the floor.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqJzkzBZqQk
“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.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvWAV2Eb1ND
Biting her lip: “I try.”826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Gq2ODB3dS
As if satisfied by his outbreak of force, Adam deflates. “Good.”826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ZXONbKO4P
There’s a pause. “…Honey?”826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo6ZoPPNJ0w
“For God’s sake, Rachael, what is it?” Adam turns to face his wife.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEiFjHtMen1
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.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKdoJL6i7aB
“What do you think it is?” His reply is throwaway; he barely gives the bag a glance.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLGkk1SNzM3
“Doesn’t it bother you?” She’s sweating: she knows that she might be crossing a line.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1SOHCfbsDm
“Why would it?” His tone of voice already changes; suspicious of her intentions.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDkT3Z4wys4
“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.”826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuNnxUKZQT4
“…And?” Questioning. Provoking. Is this the man she married twenty years ago?826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU7Iv2hCt9G
“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.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLu8yvnU3G9
For a moment, everything is frozen – but then it happens – the side of his hand coming into contact with her left cheek.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG1ySYjuDAJ
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.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNtqf4qt5ML
“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.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡly5Nv0s5za
Confused, angry, forlorn, ashamed, he curses under his breath. Since when was he like this?826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3EFO1P9m0Q
He tears the packet open and pours the contents onto his hand before inhaling them, hating yet relishing the sting up his nostrils.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWp7aesuE6X
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.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMCgDUKZaaB
Dazed, he walks up the street.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyrHuRqzGvn
It hasn’t occurred to him yet that it wasn’t his fault.
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He wakes on something soft. Green. Grass?826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkBj68X30qa
His stomach returns the breakfast it so willingly accepted earlier that day (yesterday, perhaps?), bile burning his throat as the liquid leaves his mouth.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl2Up7UZ4tE
Rachael. Beautiful Rachael. She was upset about something. She’s always upset.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1854Dhi0oo
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.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL7PIPWZ8Ck
He laughs in relief when he sees her, standing all the way at the top of the hill.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡooLrxP7zVM
Gone are the creases of worry that lined her face, gone are the tears she often cried.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9HW1Czdtwc
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?826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs0brszoYNx
“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.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAoYCLxmQ7q
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.826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1oFeShgz7z
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diende…
~Ad infinitum~826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdJNCYVYjqB
826Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡds0UOT6RRD
