Last Petal on the Rose and Other Stories by Stephanie Rabig

Author:Stephanie Rabig [Rabig, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-27T04:00:00+00:00

*~*~*

That was the last moment they had alone for over a full day, as first the police, and then doctors, and then media had question upon question.

Once they were finally back at Makana's house—after evading the members of the press who were parked up and down the street—xe collapsed onto the couch.

"Maybe we should've checked in to a hotel instead," Makana said. The police had been through the house and had taken everything that had been in the cubbyhole as evidence, but the fact still remained that xyr attacker had been here. Creeping around at night.

"It'll be all right," Patrick said. "You stay in one of the spare rooms and I'll crash on the couch. Okay?"

Makana headed for xyr room.

The cubbyhole, now empty, looked more like what xe remembered from xyr childhood.

"I hadn't opened it in years," Makana said quietly. "We used to play in it all the time. Not just me and Randy, but any kid I ever had over. Becky and Luisa and Manuel and Karen..." Xe trailed off, hesitantly reaching out to touch the sliding door. "Dad and I used to play. He'd squeeze himself in there and then I'd clamber in and we'd pretend to be stowaways on a pirate ship. Mom would call us for lunch and shake her head at us. She was claustrophobic. Used to say that just seeing us in there made her feel twitchy."

Makana stepped away from the cubbyhole. Right now the only thing xe wanted to do was fill it with concrete, board it up, make absolutely sure that it was gone. But after a few weeks or months, would xe regret that decision?

"I wrote him one hell of a letter," Makana said. "After he wrote me asking for money. I got it the day of Aunt Linh's funeral, and I just... I exploded at him. If I'd just ignored it, or at least if I'd been more polite—"

"Hey," Patrick said, resting a hand on xyr shoulder. "He tried to take advantage of you when you were grieving. That is not someone who was good to start with."

"He was good, though," xe said, resisting the urge to lean into him. "He was a really nice kid."

"And how many decades passed between then and now?"

"Four," xe admitted. When xe and Randy had been friends, Patrick hadn't even been born yet. Xe blinked quickly, keeping xyr gaze on the floor. "But still."

"You don't know what happened between when you knew him and today. I'm sure the media will tell us all about it within the next few weeks," he said. "But you cannot make a good person into a bad one with a sharply-worded letter. This is not your fault."

Makana closed xyr eyes, trying to believe the words. Xe knew they made sense, but it just felt like xe should have been able to do something to keep the outcome from being what it was. Then xyr focus slowly shifted from what xe should have done differently to the weight of his hand on xyr shoulder, and xe reluctantly stepped away.

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