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He rested his head against the mattress, inhaled h already sore with tears "Do you remember Mary? Her husband hits her I bet he hits my nephew too, but she wouldn’t say" His eyes burned with unexpected tears The guilt that twisted his gut was fresh and raw as it had been the day Lyle died "I never knehy you did it Why you had to die instead of cohed, and his voice trailed off He wasn’t sure what he’d been about to say "I just wish you were here, Lyle I wish you were here to talk to"

Rafe pressed his mouth to the mattress and closed his eyes for a moment before he rose and brushed the dirt off his slacks

He would just ask Mary what happened with Marco If Victor was all right If they wanted to live with him for a while He would tell his parents that he slept with men There would be nohe could do for Lyle now, but there was still sos he’d left unsaid and hope that others would too

As Rafe stood, lights sprung up fro in the dark

Around hiht and see behind theht he saw a kid, so absorbed in dancing that he did not hear Rafe gasp or shout He started forward, hand outstretched At the center of the circle, a woreen smiled a cold and terrible smile before the whole coainst his chest He was frightened as he had not been at fourteen, when s sees were alht of all the other fairy tales he knew about tailors He thought of the faerie woot to the house, he pulled his sewing machine out of the closet and set it up on the kitchen table Then he began to rue He found crushed panne velvet that looked like liquid gold and sewed it into a frockcoat studded with bright buttons and appliquéd with blue flames that lapped up the sleeves It was one of the s he had everit and woke to hisa cup of espresso mixed with condensed

It was easy to e around s and explain to his bewildered parents that he needed to work from their kitchen for a day or two Of course Clio would feed his cats Of course his client understood that Rafe orking through a design problem Of course the presentation could be rescheduled for the following Friday Of course Of course

His mother patted his shoulder "You work too hard"

He nodded, because it was easier than telling her he wasn’t really working

"But you randet their wedding dresses ifts he had brought at the holidays--cashloves and leather coats and bottles of perfuifts had see her a child’s ant,about hi her in a silk dress the color of papayas--one he ht sew himself--filled him with shame

He slept most of the day in the shadowed dark of his parent’s bed with the shades drawn and the door closed The buzz of cartoons in the background and the sain When he woke it was dark outside His clothes had been cleaned and were folded at the foot of the bed He put the golden coat on over thearette after cigarette, dropping the filters into the water, listening for the hiss as the river smothered the fla their endless dance, with the cold faerie wo in the h the circle Her eyes were green as ot close, he saw that her hair flowed behind her as though she were swih water or like ribbons whipped in a fierce wind Where she stepped, tiny flowers bloolows like the sun," the faery said, reaching out to touch the fabric

"I would give it to you," said Rafe "Just let me have Lyle"

A sht with hio Will that price suit?"

Rafe nodded and reht Lyle’s hand as he spun past, pulling hi, still, as his bare feet touched the rew broader, he becathened, and fine lines appeared around hisus, even for a ti on her toes, she bent Lyle’s head to her lips His eyelids drooped and she steered hi mattress He never even looked in Rafe’s direction; he just sank down into sleep

"Lyle," Rafe said, dropping down beside hile of hair back fros and leaves and cords of thorny vines A shted one cheekbone Leaves blew over hiain Rafe was reminded of how Lyle’s body had lain in the casket at the funeral, of how Lyle’s skin had been pale and bluish as skiers were threaded together across his chest so tightly that when Rafe tried to take his hand, it was stiff as a mannequin’s Even now, the memory of that other, dead Lyle seemed more real than the one that slept beside him like a cursed prince in a fairy tale

"Please wake up," Rafe said "Please Wake up and tell me this is real"