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So, the years Fanning said time was different for their kind, and it was The days’ ceaselessly , season into season, year into year What were they to each other? He was kind He understood her We have traveled the same road, he said Stay with me, Lish Stay with me, and all of it is ended Did she believe him? There were times when he seemed to know the deepest truths of her What to say, what to ask, when to listen and for how long Tell entle It was like no voice she had ever heard; it felt like floating in a bath of tears Tell me about your Rose

Yet there was another part of hi silences disturbed her, as did instances of a slightly off-key cheerfulness that seeht, so he had not done in years He one Alicia decided to follow hihts he wandered without apparent destination, a forlorn figure haunting the streets; then, on the fourth night, he surprised her With deliberate strides he e, and halted before a nondescript residential building, five stories tall, with a flight of steps connecting the front door to the street Alicia concealed herself behind a rooftop parapet at the top of the block Several ’s face Suddenly it ca seemed to click inside him, and he marched up to the door, forced it with his shoulder, and disappeared inside

He was gone for a long while An hour, then two Alicia began to be concerned Unless Fanning appeared soon, there would not be time for hied At the botto her presence, he cast his eyes around the street, then looked straight toward her Alicia ducked below the parapet and pressed her body to the rooftop

"I know you’re there, Alicia But it’s all right"

When she looked again, the street was eht’s events, and Alicia did not press She had gli eluded her Why, after all this tiain

What was going to happen next, Fanning must have anticipated; Alicia was obviouslywas a wreck on the inside Black spatters of mold scaled the walls, and the floors were soft underfoot In the stairwell, water dripped froh above She ascended to the second floor, where a door stood open in invitation The interior of the apartely spared the destruction The furniture, though caked with dust, was all neatly arranged; books and azines and various decorative objects still occupied their places, just as, Alicia supposed, they had been in the final hours of Fanning’s huh the fastidious roo wanted her to know the man he’d been A new, deeper intimacy had been offered her

She entered the bedroom It seemed different froible sense of more recent occupation The furniture was simple: a desk, a dresser, an upholstered chair by the , a bed, neatlythe center of the mattress was a depression of distinctly human dilasses rested on the bedside table Alicia knehoently picked them up They were petite, ire fralasses within reach Fanning had lain here And he had left all of this for her to see

To see, she thought What did he want her to see?

She lay on the bed Thecollapsed Then she put on the glasses

--

She could never explain it; the h the lenses, it was as if she had becoh her, the pain The truth hit her heart like voltage Of course Of course

Daybreak found her at the bridge Her fear of the churning waters, though strong, seeolden rays behind her Upon Soldier’s back sheher shadow

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They found Bill in the retaining pool at the bottoht before, he’d slipped out of the hospital, taking his clothes and shoes After that, the trail went cold Soh the ht, he said Bill was always at the tables It would have been more remarkable if he weren’t