5 Aces
A Roy Harper Adventure
by Waran Payce
Copyright 2010 Waran Payce
Smashwords Edition
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Getting out was one of the first thoughts he remembered having. Not that he remembers very much of those days, but that thought, striking out, moving free, stands out of the darkness like Venus on a late summer night.
Funny that he should think of that now, at this time and in this place. What he needed was a solution, not a review of ancient history; and yet, in some not so small way, it was certainly the choices made by that distant nine year old that led him to where he is now. "Like ripples on a pond" he mused. How different it all might have been if he hadn't been guaranteed to die young. Would a belief in the future have made his choices any different? Hard to say, but looking up out of that hole has given him the chance to do a lot of thinking; about the past, the present, and of a future that is no more certain tonight than it was forty years ago.
"I wish I could run away now,” he thought, out of this hole, out of this life. How many times had his temper gotten him into trouble? Not enough fingers for that answer. But now he knows why it’s not a good idea to slam the door and go stomping off into the everlasting arctic midnight. The tantrum seemed like such a good idea at the time. Not that there had been a lot of thought; it had just felt so good, so pure, to let the rage flow, the cleansing anger that leaves him drained and limp like a night of outrageous passion.