SUNRISE825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUUoeQZEuyN
825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡghH0XUDSek
“Honey?”825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBra74BcQpQ
“Rachael, I don’t have the bloody time to – ” Adam drops his cutlery and throws up his hands.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbNDb6AP1oK
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Rachael returns back to her breakfast. With a grunt, Adam returns to his.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFcVsVZc3y5
The rest of the meal passes in silence.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAQ7nQync4p
The tall, unshaven man rises from his seat and almost trips on a bottle lying on the floor.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN18B5xslwj
“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.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡheBsnOGNDv
Biting her lip: “I try.”825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7c5T52sKBa
As if satisfied by his outbreak of force, Adam deflates. “Good.”825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv9q0cqFoW8
There’s a pause. “…Honey?”825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeV17UbqICZ
“For God’s sake, Rachael, what is it?” Adam turns to face his wife.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeNQ47lRNzg
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.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoxNnVkNVGy
“What do you think it is?” His reply is throwaway; he barely gives the bag a glance.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoWmXE3i8v2
“Doesn’t it bother you?” She’s sweating: she knows that she might be crossing a line.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHMuPlHZsFC
“Why would it?” His tone of voice already changes; suspicious of her intentions.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg8CvFrnSuG
“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.”825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0CiOZBdiRJ
“…And?” Questioning. Provoking. Is this the man she married twenty years ago?825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4LKvvuJmvZ
“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.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0llxdMC8Oj
For a moment, everything is frozen – but then it happens – the side of his hand coming into contact with her left cheek.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaVRmNcUfcP
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.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYBgCqNbsyE
“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.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcuZh0XCeRd
Confused, angry, forlorn, ashamed, he curses under his breath. Since when was he like this?825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8mOZI9ECZz
He tears the packet open and pours the contents onto his hand before inhaling them, hating yet relishing the sting up his nostrils.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsLuVqjrqM0
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.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG72GEuah5m
Dazed, he walks up the street.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8KmKW1KtMT
It hasn’t occurred to him yet that it wasn’t his fault.
825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLyOxYpR39S
He wakes on something soft. Green. Grass?825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdBVTbFBbru
His stomach returns the breakfast it so willingly accepted earlier that day (yesterday, perhaps?), bile burning his throat as the liquid leaves his mouth.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJL5uFMhalx
Rachael. Beautiful Rachael. She was upset about something. She’s always upset.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW0TfG696lD
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.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Bnbh7amnA
He laughs in relief when he sees her, standing all the way at the top of the hill.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8yi9U3TwM8
Gone are the creases of worry that lined her face, gone are the tears she often cried.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ77Av6FA7zU
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?825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡda81m2QGj9
“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.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj5cYuQ7vgd
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.825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbtVwGUbZoV
825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM4nBqBWbC4
diende…
~Ad infinitum~825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0JTMIBpFJl
825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrCVRmWIXcW
