Who had the bigger burden? The one who had to watch the other person endure or the one who endured? — Jeff VanderMeer

They’ll never forget, never forgive, no matter who the enemy is, son. Better just to start a new life. Be someone else.

Strange, but when he closed his eyes he had an image of the hotel above them restored to its former grandeur. A concierge and porter in the lobby. Someone behind the desk waiting to take his key. Sintra in an evening gown. They’d be about to take a motored vehicle to the opera. The streets would be busy with merchants and people coming home from work. The buildings, the storefronts, would be bright and cheery with lights. Like it had been in those mayfly beautiful moments between wars, before the Rising.

It looked like lively abstract art. Symbols in search of context.