Runes Trilogy 01 - The Wolf at His Door by Adrian Lilly

Author:Adrian Lilly [Lilly, Adrian]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-07-02T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-four

Ilene stared out the coffee shop window into the crabapple flower petals gathered in wet heaps on the parking lot. The wind and rain over night had whipped them from the branches and left them sopping on the asphalt. She thought of the blooming trees—and the lilacs now blooming in her yard—and how Alec would miss them. She decided to cut some flowers for his room. She would bring spring to her gently sleeping prince. He had been in a coma for six weeks, and now the doctors were discussing the permanence of his state, despite his brain’s activity. The idea made her want to vomit, that he may never wake up. Then her mind turned dark, and she wondered what sleeping was saving him from.

She twisted her waxed cardboard cup in her hand. Jason sat across from her, eyes cast to the table. They hadn’t spoken in several minutes, and the silence sat between them like a jack-in-the-box. But what is there to say?

In New York, before they had been called home—before she had descended into an abyss she had spent years waiting for—she and Jason had been at a café of which this shop was a simulacrum. Her eyes trailed the shops that lined the parking lot. Faux fronts and parapets adorned the shops with their faux paned windows. A covered sidewalk spanned the distance of the shopping center—called West Town Center—that formed an L around a gray sea of parking. The coffee aromas were the same as New York; the conversations at tables surrounding her were as casual (dresses, volunteer work, children); and the workers were the same (young hipsters). Yet, everything had an air of inauthenticity, a yearning to be other that what it was. Even the name of the shop: City Coffee.

Jason strummed his fingers on the table and slurped his coffee, avoiding her eyes. He left work to meet her at the coffeehouse—anything to get out her out of the hospital. No more antiseptic smells, no more hospital coffee with flavored creamers like a gas station. No more intermittent pages for doctors. No more constant reminders that their son was in a coma.

Instead, they sat in a coffeehouse in a faux town center with faux sophisticates that reminded her that her whole life was a sham.

“Whatcha thinkin’ about?”

“How much I love you and the kids,” Ilene replied, staring at the ecru half-moons left on the inside of her cup as she sloshed her coffee.

* * * *

Ronnie Johnston knew that, at 88, she was more active than many people a quarter her age. Each morning she started her day with a brisk walk, and then she headed to the senior center for water aerobics. She’d been active her whole life—and she was certain that was why she was still spry.

She felt good in her nylon tracksuit—bright green and pink—and she liked the whiz whiz sound it made as she walked. The sun shone down through the trees in mottled shapes and shadows on the sidewalk.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.