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“It’s a sad miserable life, Rory”
His wrists strained against the unbreakable bindings “But it’s on Start over”
“I know you’re scared” The stranger’s voice gentled “I know you don’t have the courage to see this through Look at that picture, Rory Even then when your chances were at their best, you clung to young Elizabeth who could barely take care of herself”
“I don’t want to die!”
“Do you really think Elizabeth would think your life is worth saving, Rory?”
“Elizabeth was kind and gentle She’d want me to live”
“Really? You hurt her badly Disappointed her when she needed you ood works your family did for you You’ve been in one crap job after another for the last decade, and you ed to piss ao hundred and six days of sobriety in one night You talk of your brother, but in recent years he’s refused all your calls”
Rory had burned the last bridge with his brother last year when he’d missed their ht arrow”
“It’s as if you feel you don’t deserve any bit of happiness”
He’d never wanted to be a suit like his brother or be jailed by the family business “I like happiness just fine I have fun all the time”
“Where do you think your trouble began, Rory? When did your life go off the rails?” The stranger’s voice was soft but clear And a little familiar now
Rory ru to isolate the voice When had they crossed paths? He’d been in that bar in East Austin last night He’d had a lead on a job and had not wanted to go inside but the pro Who?
“Just because I’m not a choirboy doesn’t mean I’m bad”
A click of a lighter and then arette “I think you were done the day you were born, Rory I think you could never hold a candle to your brother He’s the one your parents loved He’s the one who got all the attention and support”
The stranger’s blistering truth rekindled the old anger that had chased hi of private schools, and thrown into too many jails “Did one for a long time”
“Face it, it’s time you left this world for the next”
Panic extinguished the anger “That’s not true!”
“Of course it’s true” The stranger’s voice remained soft, steady, and so reasonable “You were the mistake The child no one wanted Sad your own parents wouldn’t want their own flesh and blood”
Rory tipped his face up away from the picture and toward the moonless sky “Stop”
“It’s not good to bury the pain, Rory Better to face it head-on and deal with it Admit it Your parents didn’t want you”
Tears stung his eyes He was thirty-one, could hot-wire a car, crack any lock, and hold a gallon of liquor in his belly and still walk straight He’d grown a thick skin, but the stranger’s words stripped away the gristle and left hi like the sad, pathetic kid he’d been “Not true”
“Come on, Rory, it’s Come-to-Jesus time The moment of truth The pain had burrowed deep inside you, and though it does a good job of hiding behind a bottle, it’s there”
Rory stared at Elizabeth’s face He fisted his fingers “Who sent you?”
“We weren’t sent, Rory We were summoned by you”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“You called us Your pain and suffering beckoned us to find you I’m only here to take the pain away”
Rory twisted his head toward the stranger and stue Heart racing, he shouted, “I don’t want you to take the pain away I like my life!”
“How long has it been since you’ve seen Elizabeth?”
“How do you know Elizabeth?”
“I know all about her”
Even now, here, hearing her na into her and her lackluster blue eyes soothed him “She told me she loved me”
“And I believe she did She illing to go to the m
at for you And you sent all her letters back unread”
More tears spilled “I didn’t want to send them back I loved her”
“Our deeds define us Rory, not our words”
Rory tensed, shocked a stranger would know deep and intimate details “How do you know so much about me?”
“I know a lot about you And Elizabeth And the others I know all your deepest desires”
“You don’t”
“You once said you’d die a happy ht?”
“Go to hell,” Rory spat
“I’rave without getting their last wish granted”
The stranger ground out his cigarette and opened the truck cab door His body scraped across cloth seats before the cab door slaine and revved it
Rory braced
His gaze bore into Elizabeth’s snored her tension and saw only her smile, her sht shoulder