Shuggie Bain

by Douglas Stuart

She had loved him, and he had needed to break her completely to leave her for good. Agnes Bain was too rare a thing to let someone else love. It wouldn’t do to leave pieces of her

for another man to collect and repair later.

If he got this and she got that, then what would they themselves do without? It was a mother’s math.

“I am in flames, yet I do not burn,”

“I am on fire. I do not burn. It’s Saint Agnes’s lament.”

“I am in flames, yet I do not burn. Well, let that be hope for us all. Every one of us here tonight has been ravaged

by the flames.” He cleared his throat and spread his arms, like a fairground huckster. “Haven’t we all burnt for another drink, burnt up with the fever, with the sweat and panic, our throats on fire, our hearts burning in our chests?” The crowd made an agreeing murmur. “Then you have it.” He made a satisfied ahhhhh sound. “That glorious drink you have wanted so badly, and it burns

through you, as sure as petrol. Like petrol it fuels the demons in you, it burns you away to the very devil. You go up in flames, and everything you touch you destroy; everyone you love steps away, steps back from the fire. Money burns, families burn, careers b...

“Flames are not just the end, they are also the beginning. For everything that you have destroyed can be rebuilt. From your own ashes you can grow again.”