someone else's shadow (iii)
1 | 2 | 3 | 4
*"Is it really so bad here?" It came out wistful instead of merely curious and Rodney couldn't bear to look at John, carefully looked out the window instead. It used to look down into someone's backyard, but there were tomato plants in the way now, carefully planted in empty coffee cans by John. One of them was bent under the weight of a half-ripe tomato.
All the plants would probably die if John left. Rodney could never remember that they needed to watered more than once every three months.
"No." John sounded hoarse, strained, like he might bolt. "But it's not--not there. Not home." Not Atlantis.
And there wasn't anything Rodney could say to that without sounding like a needy housewife, which he refused to do, even for John. Any version of him.
*"Is it really so bad here?" It came out wistful instead of merely curious and Rodney couldn't bear to look at John, carefully looked out the window instead. It used to look down into someone's backyard, but there were tomato plants in the way now, carefully planted in empty coffee cans by John. One of them was bent under the weight of a half-ripe tomato.
All the plants would probably die if John left. Rodney could never remember that they needed to watered more than once every three months.
"No." John sounded hoarse, strained, like he might bolt. "But it's not--not there. Not home." Not Atlantis.
And there wasn't anything Rodney could say to that without sounding like a needy housewife, which he refused to do, even for John. Any version of him.