Five Decembers

by James Kestrel

He’d never lived in a place long enough to feel homesick when he left. Now he had an idea what that was like. It wasn’t as bad as he’d imagined. Missing her was its own peculiar satisfaction. It was proof he belonged somewhere.

He was depending on something that itself depended on another person’s free will.

We’re in love with women who can’t stand us. We drove them away because we showed them what we were willing to do.

She opened the door all the way, so that he could see the rest of her. A man could go broke. A man could sink into debt. Plenty probably had.

“The best way to lie is to start with the truth. It’s easier to keep your story straight,”

You couldn’t do this sort of thing without taking risk. But that was true of everything.

Politics. A way to divide people.”