The Final Scene

by Steph Nelson

Naivety is hope, and hope—in whatever form—is survival, and just because Brooke is so far past all of that, doesn’t mean she should tear it from Kinsey.

Favorite stories are full of friends to visit when you have nobody else.

“Don’t talk to me about giving up,” she hisses. “Homeless, because you couldn’t hack it with life? Probably some cliché, like maybe you couldn’t solve a case. And since you were always the one dealing out the blows to everyone else, never taking them yourself, you tucked your tail and ran. All the while, I was here and you, the police, should have been looking for me, but instead, you were doing dope on the streets! You wanna talk about survival? I’m a survivor. You’re a quitter.”