Career day. She asks what I do. Lucia smiles at her and tells her that father works for the civil service. She won't let me lie to her. Not again.
A package in the post. A toy plane. Just for me. Happy birthday, Daddy.
I don't have a birthday.
I stare down the barrel of my revolver. A girl cries out for her father and runs to him. Alien parasite took his brain. She watched.
1991. I miss 16. Lockdown. I call. She's out.
The age means so much. She's growing up. I look the same as the day she was born.