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One

Reality is just a notion, really

It’s fluid It changes and bends, and it isn’t always as it seems

That is certainly so I’ve learned

Take ht now, for instance

I stare across the crowded room at her, at Calla My Calla

She sits araceful, bewitching in her beauty, even while wearing a thin hospital gown She’s slender and fe She’s y and ethereal, her dark red hair flowing around her shoulders, her eyes wide and blue and bright She’s got the curiosity of a child, and possesses that strange ‘so’ that women would pay a million pounds to buy

She glances up, and seesher face behind the curtain of her hair

Right now, she doesn’t know she’s mine

She will, of course She’ll remember, because she always does, once the pieces all coether But for now, she’s in the dark And while it should be hard for me, impossible almost, it’s not Because I have faith that it will always come to pass the way it should

Right noever, I et to know me

Again

It all starts with hello

I walk to her with purpose I don’t pretend to amble or stroll She looks up, her eyes wide

“Is this seat taken?” I ask her, as I always do My accent is unhts But she smiles and waves at the chair Her hospital bracelet encircles her slender wrist Calla Elizabeth Price, Female, it says

But she’s so much more than that

“Go ahead,” she tells ain, I see, as I glance at her hand I want to remind her to stop but I can’t Not yet I’m not supposed to know her details

I ses a pretty red I love it when they do that

“I’m Adair DuBray,” I tell her “But you can call me Dare”

“I’m Calla,” she tells me “Like the funeral lily It’s nice tomy measure “Why are you here at the hospital? Surely it’s not for the coffee” She eyes the coffee cup in my hand

“You knohat ga the Styrofoalass in here I don’t want to lie to her, of course, but I can’t tell her the truth either So avoidance is key

“No, what?” her brow furrows

“Twenty questions That way, I know at the end of the game that there won’t be any more Questions, that is”

Calla startles for just a rin “You hate questions, too?” she asks “I’ about myself in here that I could die”