IV

Here there was no need to be aware of others looking in. Here there was no need to ensure his heartless reputation was not to be disrupted. Here she could let down her walls of strength. Here was where there was a time for comfort and grief and prayers to all forces greater. Here is where they would wait for two weeks…

Fourteen days…

Fourteen sunsets…

Fourteen sunrises…

Forty two meals…

Fourteen chimes of the midnight bell…

Three hundred thirty six hours…

Twenty thousand, one hundred sixty minutes…

One million, two hundred nine thousand, six hundred seconds…

And each breath hanging onto the living pulse of a fifteen year old boy.

A note from TurtleHeart:

to be continued...