[ The sunlight picks out every shade of copper and cinnamon in Noelle's hair. She towers over the scenery like some wild abstract sculpture, every disparate part finally in harmony. When her heads yawn and sink into pacified calm, Krouse thinks of just hatched baby birds, all vestigial feathers and knobbled spines and bulging blue veins.
He drops back against the cinder block wall and looks up at her, his cresting edge of fear melting away under the warmth reflected off the back of her closed eyes. ]
Yeah.
[ When he'd stepped outside for the first time, it'd rolled over him like a wave. He hadn't been sure it'd do the same thing for Noelle, but he'd hoped.
It's been a long time since he'd hoped. Even longer since it paid off. It's such a small thing, this temporary reprieve. Nothing about their situation is any better, the horizon of possibilities they're facing just as bleak as they were inside the hospital. Noelle's predictions hover over them like pale wings.
But right now, they're still together, and Noelle's almost happy. He'll stay in this moment as long as it lasts, vision blurring in the glow of an open sky. He doesn't blink it away. ]
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He drops back against the cinder block wall and looks up at her, his cresting edge of fear melting away under the warmth reflected off the back of her closed eyes. ]
Yeah.
[ When he'd stepped outside for the first time, it'd rolled over him like a wave. He hadn't been sure it'd do the same thing for Noelle, but he'd hoped.
It's been a long time since he'd hoped. Even longer since it paid off. It's such a small thing, this temporary reprieve. Nothing about their situation is any better, the horizon of possibilities they're facing just as bleak as they were inside the hospital. Noelle's predictions hover over them like pale wings.
But right now, they're still together, and Noelle's almost happy. He'll stay in this moment as long as it lasts, vision blurring in the glow of an open sky. He doesn't blink it away. ]